South Africa May Follow the Example of Australia When It Comes To Online Gambling Law

Added: February 6, 2014

South Africa has not had a firm position on online gambling laws so far, and it appears now that they country is going to put something in place. However, what we find a little strange is that the country seems to be following an online gambling law model very similar to the one that online gamblers in Australia are often limited by.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, who is a member of the Democratic Alliance, has presented a bill to the South African Parliament that proposes online gambling laws that will limit online casino play within the country, that are shockingly similar to the often restrictive online gambling laws in effect in Australia.

The bill, if passed, would allow online gamblers to legally play at online casino sites, as well as take advantage of online sports book facilitates. However, just like Australia’s online gambling law, it would restrict the actual online casino operators that can operate in the country. The new bill will almost completely change the existing 2008 National Gambling Act with regard to online casino play.

The new bill that has been proposed is similar to that in play in Australia in that is will require online casino operators to apply for local licenses to begin offering online casino sites to online gamblers in South Africa. In fact, this is exactly how online gambling law works in Australia right now. Of course, just like Australia does currently, South Africa will then benefit by having much tighter control of the online casino sites that its citizens can play at, and also a way to start leveraging value from them in the form of gambling tax revenue.

There can also be no doubt that South Africa is following the events taking place in the USA, with regard to the complete success of the legalization of locally licensed online casino sites in New Jersey. Although it must be said that its model follows the example of Australia more closely than New Jersey.

The downside of this of course, is that Australia has online gambling law that can be very restrictive for online gamblers. The choice of legal online casino sites to play it is less than many other nations, and South Africa, if it follows Australia’s example closely, will then be restricting its own online gamblers int eh same way. Then again, at least online gambling is legal to some extend in Australia.