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South African Online Gambling Bill Parked in Debate Over Advertising
Fri, Apr 11th, 2008 @ 12:00am
A debate over online gambling advertising that must be resolved before amendments to South Africa's National Gambling Amendment Bill can go forward in Parliament has caused yet another delay in the long road to regulation for the online poker industry.
The delay comes after the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) amended the Bill to include an outright prohibition on the advertising of online gambling, reports IT Web.
The Bill, as introduced into Parliament last year, would have amended the National Gambling Act of 2004 to regulate "interactive" gambling, defined as betting over the Internet or mobile phones.
Terrestrial casinos, bingo parlors and betting on horse racing are already legal and licensed in South Africa. Most firms are keen to enter the interactive gambling market once regulated.
But online poker and online gambling were outlawed by the National Gambling Act of 2004 because government wanted more time to research how to regulate and tax these sectors which were already growing quickly at the time (click here for related article).
Gambling is big business in SA, IT Web reports, with gross gambling revenue (GGR) approaching R14 billion, about half of the country's defense budget. The National Gambling Board defines GGR as turnover less winnings paid to players.
"Veteran ANC lawmaker professor Ben Turok says the National Assembly's trade and industry committee last month "took a decision not to proceed" with the Bill as the committee believed "that it would allow young people to gamble from home and we are opposed to that"," reports ITWeb.
Democratic Alliance Member of Parliament Les Labuschagne says the committee believes "there is no hurry" to enact the legislation. He adds that some MPs on the portfolio committee are opposed to gambling and casinos in general, but have to abide by the law.
Both the National Assembly and NCOP are also opposed to the advertising of online gambling, but the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which sponsored the original law and its amendment, says it would be unconstitutional to ban advertising for online gambling but not for conventional gambling.
Labuschagne says the committee has now set the Bill aside to hear and consider DTI input on the advertising question.
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