South Africa is calling for a fight against the Wild West of online gambling

The member of the Parliament from the Rise Mzansi party Makashule Ghana called for the regulatory authorities of South Africa to adopt the experience with an international partner and fight gambling, which turned into a “wild West”, causing serious problems in society.

Recently, India introduced a ban on online games for real money and their advertising, which caused an increase in conversations about the regulation of this sector.

In an interview with Techcentral, Ghana said: “It is necessary to change the legislation in order to protect the vulnerable residents of South Africa from the harm that gambling online games.”

He added that these companies should compensate for the damage that they cause, but if this does not happen, then the part of the money that goes to development will be aimed at rehabilitation of dependent on the online gambling.

Makashule Gana also criticized gambling advertisements, which, he believes, went beyond decency, and some industry players change the approach to advertising.

“They should not place advertising at eight in the morning or give impossible promises about how people can quickly get rich. They should also spend money to talk about the responsible game, warn people about the danger of addiction and advise them not to play using credit cards or overdraft. ”

The legislative base of the South African Republic in the field of gambling business needs to be updated. Adopted back in 2008, the bill on amendments to the national legislation on gambling was to update existing norms by introducing the concept of “interactive games”, implying commercial games conducted remotely through mobile devices or computers. In addition, the amendments provided for a clear separation of the legal sports rate and illegal virtual casinos. However, these changes until now remain unusual and are not applied in practice.

In November 2024, a bill on remote gambling was submitted to the parliament as an attempt to eliminate gaps in the regulatory framework of the online gambling. According to the National Representative of the Democratic Party for Trade, Industry and Competition, Toby Chang, the full ban on online gambling will be too cruel, but the sector must have effective regulation.