SA’s illegal online gambling crackdown leads to 39 arrests in five years
Despite a surge in illegal online betting platforms, law enforcement has secured convictions in only 22 cases as legal loopholes and outdated laws hamper progress.
South Africa.- South Africa is struggling to rein in the explosion of illegal online gambling, with only 39 arrests recorded across the entire country in the past five financial years. The startling figure emerged following a parliamentary question posed to police by the leader of political party Rise Mzansi, Songezo Zibi.
Responding to the question, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu acknowledged the difficulty in identifying illegal online gambling activity.
“Illegal online gambling activities are challenging to identify, given the ease with which these websites can be put up and removed from the internet”, he said, according to MyBroadband.
Legislation not enacted
Although efforts to address the issue began in 2008 when former President Thabo Mbeki signed the National Gambling Amendment Act, the legislation has never been enacted. Its provisions for regulating interactive gambling remain idle.
Under the National Gambling Act of 2004, interactive gambling games, which are accessed via the internet, are strictly illegal. However, international review site AskGamblers said South Africans currently have access to more than 1,000 online gambling sites.
Despite the volume of accessible sites, Mchunu revealed that only 36 cases related to illegal online gambling were reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) over the five-year period. These resulted in just 39 arrests, with only four involving the elite crime-fighting unit known as the Hawks, officially the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
Even more concerning is the geographical scope of enforcement. All 39 arrests were confined to just two provinces, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, leaving the remaining seven provinces untouched. Of the arrests in Gauteng, the Hawks were responsible for 13, but the charges in these cases were later withdrawn.
“Regarding the cases investigated by the DPCI, the validity of the search warrants was contested in the High Court by the legal representatives of the accused, where seized exhibits are returned to the accused,” Mchunu said.
Out of 39 arrests, only 22 have actually resulted in convictions: nine in 2020/21, twelve in 2023/24, and one in 2024/25. Online gambling cases remain the wallflowers of the gambling world, making up just 0.1 per cent of all reported cases. Meanwhile, illegal land-based gambling accounted for a whopping 32,906 cases during the same period.
Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has also sounded the alarm. “The department is aware of the growing challenge of illegal online gambling in South Africa,” he said, pointing to rising unregulated activity in both gambling and sports betting.
For now, the numbers speak volumes.
