SA Online Gambling Regulation Delayed

November 23 - In a review of the progress of the South African online gambling industry, ITWeb reported that changes are unlikely to be introduced in the near future due to a number of factors that are causing the process to stall.

A number of loopholes still exist and systems that were planned to stop fraudulent and underage gambling activities have still not been set in place, according to the publication.

Public meetings are currently being held by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regarding these issues and a final bill will only be tabled once all the changes have been introduced and implemented.

"While the National Gambling Act introduced measures to deal with illegal activities, through an umbrella provision prohibiting such actions, there were loopholes with regards to interactive gambling," said publication.

It also went on to observe that "the legislation needed to be amended to deal with specifics, such as software tampering, cyber crime and money laundering, the DTI says."

The National Gambling Act was passed in 2008 to allow the introduction of a regulated and licensed interactive gaming regime in South Africa.

In August of the same year, the DTI requested a delay in the implementation after it was found that monitoring and prevention tools were not up to scratch.

The National Gambling Board, for example, which will be responsible for the monitoring of the operators is still "developing its IT skills to handle this concern", said the DTI.

Some of the restrictions to be placed on players include the ability to create an account linked to credit card or check accounts, with no possibility of cash transactions.

All personal details will also need to be disclosed, including proof of residential address, in a bid to encourage maximum transparency.

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