More than 100 organisations unite to demand ban on online gambling in South Africa
In a historic show of unity, 107 organisations from South Africa’s labour, civic, faith-based, and welfare sectors have signed the Civil Society Declaration on the Harm of Online Gambling, calling for a national ban on all forms of online betting.
The organisations held a meeting at Radisson Blu, Umhlanga on Saturday.
The newly formed Civil Society Coalition Against Online Gambling has launched a 90-day National Action Plan that will include marches, petitions, and public education drives.
Dhilosen Pillay, former chairperson of the Free State Gambling, Liquor and Tourism Board, said the problem stems from weak regulation.
“For the term online gambling, you do not have a licence for online gambling. There’s a bookmaker’s licence, which is a fixed-odds licence. Now, the National Gambling Board, formed in 2004, was disbanded in 2014. So we have the administrator, and it’s impossible for the administrator to take into consideration all factors pertaining to gambling.”
He emphasised that licensing falls under provincial legislatures. “The national board only issues licences to casinos. The rest, bookmaker, totalizator, limited-payout, and bingo licences are issued by provincial gambling boards,” he explained.
“Now the provincial gambling boards are born out of an act of the legislature and not of national government. So the provincial legislatures, then pass an act that creates a provincial gambling board. And these are the gambling boards that approve these particular licences. So, when gambling online, what are you actually betting on? You are actually gambling with a fixed odds licence, which is what we call bookmaker licences.”
Pillay added, “In the Free State, we don’t have online gambling because we have not approved games that are similar to casinos. When you’re gambling online, there’s no geographic location; you can actually gamble from a classroom.” He warned that without national enforcement, “online betting will continue to operate in a legal grey area.”
Adding a personal perspective, recovering compulsive gambler Rakesh Ramanand said gambling “quietly crept into our homes, our phones, and our daily lives,” masked as entertainment. “Today I am 21 years, 5 months, and 27 days gambling-free,” he said. “Although I am 21 years clean, I’m just one bet away from relapsing and ruining my life.”
Ramanand urged tougher laws and public awareness. “We need stricter age verification and a total ban on advertising, like what was done for tobacco,” he said. “Gambling advertising needs to be banned completely. Billboards must warn about addiction and promote the help that’s available. Have you ever seen a gambling house close down? Odds are not in your favour; they’re in the house’s favour.”
Dr Muni Kooblal, of Child Welfare South Africa, announced a national petition and community education campaign “to protect vulnerable children and families from the predatory tactics of online gambling platforms.”
The memorandum “Protecting Our People: Ending the Silent Epidemic of Online Gambling” calls for:
- a total ban on online gambling and advertising;
- a freeze on new gambling licences;
- the formation of a National Enforcement Task Force; and
- amendments to the National Gambling Act to outlaw digital gambling and criminalise unlicensed operators.