Gambling in South Africa

01/30/2009 - 12:17 / Posted by nicolae

Cape Town Waterfront

Following a near outright ban for most of its history, several forms of gambling were legalised in South Africa in 1996. A change in legislation saw the establishment of legal casinos, a national lottery and other forms of gaming.

History of gambling in South Africa

Most forms of gambling were banned or restricted from as early as 1673, with the Gambling Act of 1965 officially banning all forms except betting on horse racing. In the late 1970s casinos started operating in the bantustans of Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei and Venda. By 1995 an estimated 2000 illegal casinos were believed to be operating within the country. In 1996 the National Gambling Act instituted a system of licensed casinos and a single national lottery.

Some scholars have argued that illegal gambling was at least tacitly supported by mining companies in order to keep black African workers locked in poverty and available as a source of cheap labour.

Prevalence and value

According to a 2006 study the most popular forms of gambling in South Africa were the National Lottery (86.9% participation), slot machines (27.7% participation, scratchcards (22.7% participation), charity jackpot competitions (11.6% participation) and horse racing betting (11.5% participation). 8.3% of respondents said they never gambled and a further 5.5% characterised themselves as occasional game players with no regular forms of gambling.

In the 2006/2007 financial year licensed gross gambling revenue as monitored by the National Gambling Board totaled R13.52 billion, from R11.4 billion the previous year. 86.2 percent of that revenue was derived in casinos. In the same period the Board reported a total of 455 raids on and closures of presumed illegal gambling operations.

Types of gambling

South African National Lottery

The South African National Lottery was established in 2000 and has been in continuous operation since, apart from a suspension between April 2007 and October 2007. In its last year of operation transaction values totaled R3.972 billion, with an average of five million transactions per week, making it the most popular form of gambling in South Africa.

Casinos

Casinos operate in all metropolitan areas in South Africa.

Horse racing

On-track betting on horse races was the only legal form of gambling in South African until 1996. Due to its complexity and the difficulty of attracting new players it did not effectively compete with the newly-introduced National Lottery and casino games.

Betting on horse races is controlled by Saftote and operated by Gold Circle in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape and by Phumelela in the remainder of the country.

References

^ Stephen P. Rule, Terezinha Da Silva, Chris Sibanyoni (2000). The Social Impact of Gambling in South Africa. HSRC Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-7969-1971-2. http://books.google.co.za/books?id=5yTlT6F5XAUC.
^ Jeffrey J Sallaz. "Gambling with Development: Casino Capitalism in South Africa and on Indian Lands in California". University of California Berkeley. Retrieved on 22 September, 2008.
^ "Problem Gambling Prevalence Study 2006". National Responsible Gambling Programme. Retrieved on 22 September, 2008.
^ "National gambling statistics for the financial year ending 31 March 2007". National Gambling Board. Retrieved on 22 September, 2008.
^ "Illegal Gambling statistics for the financial year ending 31 March 2006". National Gambling Board. Retrieved on 22 September, 2008.
^ "Speech by Thibedi Majake (CEO of the National Gambling Board) at the 2006 national convention of Racing South Africa". Racing South Africa. Retrieved on 22 September, 2008.
^ "Sport: Horse racing in South Africa". SouthAfrica.info. Retrieved on 22 September, 2008.

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