SA Online Gambling Bill

July 23, 2008

The South African National Gambling Amendment Bill, or NGAB, has been released, and it contains most of the language that many thought it would. There don�t seem to be many surprises in store for the rest of the world.

The NGAB legalizes online gambling in South Africa, and sets down rules and regulations for how it will proceed. The bill�s purpose is to keep the negative effects that online gambling can have on the country to a minimum and protect its citizens from the problems that can be associated with online gambling.

The president of South Africa has not yet signed the bill, but it is expected to pass. The South African Parliament had approved new legislation in regards to online gambling in May, which was meant to amend the regulations that were already in place for online gambling.

Their goal was "to provide for the regulation of interactive gambling so as to protect society against the stimulation of the demand for gambling; to provide for the registration of players and opening of player accounts; to provide for the conditions applicable to interactive gambling licenses; to provide for further protection of minors and other persons vulnerable to the negative effects of gambling; � to prevent gambling from being associated with crime, money laundering or financing of terrorist and related activities."

The regulations will be strict and will be followed by anyone wishing to be licensed in South Africa. There are rules for the online players and how they register � as well as allowing websites to exclude certain groups or types of players. They have to treat them fairly, and covers how to resolve any disputes that arise from online gambling.

They are also ensuring that minors and other �vulnerable� persons will not have access to the online gambling sites. They have also set forth a code of conduct for those online gambling sites and they will follow it or they will lose their license.

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