On 5 October this year, South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued a statement on the decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal by Casino Enterprises (Pty) Ltd, Swaziland, trading as Piggs Peak, against its online activities being declared illegal. In 2003 Piggs Peak launched a court case seeking a judicial ruling that its online gambling operations in South Africa are legal as its online servers are hosted in Swaziland, where online gambling is legal, licensed and regulated.
After a lengthy court battle the South African courts have dismissed Piggs Peak’s claims and the DTI comments that the ruling is an affirmation of the country’s stringent laws on regulating gambling and ensuring that South Africans are protected from the vagaries of illegal gambling activities offered to them. “We are resolute that all illegal gambling activities that take away opportunities for the country to generate revenue and subject punters to the risks of gambling without security will be shut down, and all persons and entities found to be offering the RSA public such unlawful activities will be blacklisted and denied opportunities to operate lawfully in the country.”
At this week’s annual conference of the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) in Cape Town, DTI minister Dr Rob Davies gave a keynote address and intimated that online
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gambling in South Africa could be legalised in the near future. A parliamentary commission of inquiry set up in 2009 has recommended that gambling policy and regulation in South Africa should be strengthened to enhance ‘harm mitigating measures’ but that a limited number of new forms of gambling could be accommodated.
In the meantime the DTI says everyone must abide by the decisions of the courts. “The recent findings of the NGB from an independently commissioned research on the evolution of the gambling industry will surely shape the path for the review of the gambling legislation based on the need to protect the public; create a legal framework that ensures fairness; arrest illegal activities and allow for the growth of this industry from which both the country and legitimate gambling businesses derive benefits.” (E-10.26.11)
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