Online Gambling In South Africa Is Illegal

Ruffian forgive me if im wrong,but im sure Betfair themselves have always complied,never to have advertised etc,they are too proffessionally run to do things any other way..

Will get dave to send an email

The interesting part of all of this for me is where does it put the Piggs Peak sponsorship. At first I thought bye bye and thought that the decision to bring them on bord was risky in the first instance. This IG issue has been around for a while and the risk was evident some way back and therefore why would P want to unnecesarily expose themselves to risk.

I got home last night after a few too may beers and tequila's to find Piggs Peak being punted by T Track. I thought surely not, can racing really afford a 10 bar fine. Then it struck me, the IG element is the illegal part. I don't think that there is any law preventing casino's from advertising in SA. We all associate Piggs Peak with poker, more specifically online poker however. Therefore the IG advertising surreptitiously slips through. Seems that the bookmakers are not the only ones who bend the rules (open bet). Piggs Peak will probably continue advertise on SA racecourses (IMO).

Let's hope that more is done by racing to capture the extra gambling rand.

The ruling asks for all gambling entities not licensed by SA Gambling Boards to no longer bet to South Africa citizens, with the threat of prosecution. So obviously Betfair would be in non-compliance with the ruling at present. Don't get me wrong - I think Betfair is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I just want to know their stance on it. For example : Would they ever hand over a list of South African clients to authorities here ? Do they plan to pursue a licence ?

Good point. All casinos under the previous government were out of the old SA's boarders though. Does anyone know whether ruffians understanding on the issue he raised is 100% correct. I cant imagine that the gambling board can stop SA citizens from gambling in neighbouring states or overseas. Imagine going to Vegas and not being allowed to drop a coin in a slot machine. Next flght to Disney Land.

Anyway as would be expected there is an appeals process underway according this article, they can continue until a ruling is made at this appeal www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-25-online-casino-fights-back

The French done it not so long ago,outlawed all online gambling,effected horses(betfair had to comply) poker,casino`s

Maybe I wrote that badly - I meant online entities not licensed in South Africa>

The ruling supports the expression 'when in Rome, do as the Romans'.

When an SA citizen is in another country, the laws there apply to him, and when anyone is here our laws apply to them.

With regards to Betfair, they must hold some licence here as they are a "tote' agent and lay tote bets here on our pools and they would have a revenue/tax arrangement with PGE (as they operate under the National/Provincial gambling boards).

In fact, if you read the judgement carefully, you can see how it maps the way forward..although I must confess (seriously) those comments referring to "atomic" units went way over my head and if someone would care to translate those few points into plain English I would love to try and see if I could understand it.

PS
I see Piggs Peak have advised their SA customers: "We have since been advised that we should stop operating for South African players until the matter has been resolved."

The National Gambling Board of South Africa came out with a statement making it clear that online casinos are, in fact, illegal in the country.
While the National Gambling Act of 2004 banned online gambling in South Africa “The reason is that the South African online gambling laws are geared towards the online casinos themselves, and do not target the individual players.