South Africa enforces its Gambling Amendment Bill

Authorities have been impounding winnings from gamblers that played on unregulated websites, as their new National Gambling Amendment Bill states.

South Africa.- Gamblers that won money on unauthorised online gambling sites are losing their winnings to the South African authorities as they enforce the National Gambling Amendment Bill. The modification to the National Gambling Act 2004 was released last year in order to reinforce the prohibition against online gambling on unlicensed websites.

R$1.25 million (US$97 thousand) were impounded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as they reported themselves on Saturday. The actions were taken following “unprecedented court proceedings” against several gamblers who made “unlawful winnings” on foreign online gambling sites, as CalvinAyre reported.

Punters were warned about consequences of gambling with unlicensed operators: the DTI alerted that they’d be “unable to receive their winnings and would expose themselves to criminal prosecution.” Fines of up to R$10 million (US$776 thousand) and even jailtime could be applied to anyone caught gambling online illegally.

The government has reequired so far to obtain a High Court order to confiscate this type of winnings but that may soon be over and more actions like this could happen in the near future. The DTI is trying to make it happen and it already has the banks commitment to cooperate in retaining suspected online gambling winnings.