South African gambling has been under heavy debate as of late, with the concept of online gambling being left in an indeterminable “limbo” created by the absence of any legislation to regulate it. The South African government has, in general, agreed that online gambling is acceptable in principle, however, continues to delay any specific legal regulations that would create the pastime to be officially legal.
The main issue now being determined in the area lies in whether or not online gambling is technically an issue that needs to be handled by legal proceedings from where the player is located or where the actual gaming organization is based. Neighboring Swaziland, for example, has had a long-standing understanding with the South African government in allowing South African residents to participate in gambling games in casinos there; however, handling the actual gaming via a remote location such as the internet is proving challenging for the government to decide upon.
Due to the fact that the legislators have not yet made a call one way or another in terms of gambling and its legalities they have effectively passed the task on to the local banks in the country to do so, requiring banks to develop ways to actively target specific online gambling related transactions and prevent them from being accepted. This move has only further fueled arguments against ruling online gambling as illegal, however, due to the fact that the banks would be needed to invest substantially in the process of tracking all transactions being done on an international level and actively track all payment processors that online gambling establishments may use for their services.
A number of gaming organizations, credit companies and even government organizations have taken particular interest in this case due to its potential impact upon a number of different aspects of the online world. Not only does the current requirement to track all processing affect banks and lending organizations such as credit card companies in a very costly manner but the actual passing of legislation outlawing online gambling could provide precedent in other countries to take the lead off of South Africa’s example as well. This could mean stronger regulations in other African countries or even countries in other continents that could potentially mean much greater costs and processes necessary for online gambling, thus putting a halt to the otherwise booming online industry that has grown substantially over the past few years.
Regardless the current legislative process is leaving online gaming in a steady “limbo” of operations, meaning that the government refuses to make a proclamation one way or another at this time. This effectively leaves online gambling as an illegal activity, though whether this will successfully stay this way into the future is unlikely given the amount of pressure facing the legislators to make a call and most likely rule in favor of allowing online gambling in order to appease the numerous financial organizations and avoid any unnecessary economic strain a ruling against it would bring about.
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