South African Rands Casinos

Online Casino Gambling in South African Rands Currency

There are a good number of South African Rands Casinos to choose from.

In 2008, South Africa and Italy joined the long list of countries to introduce legislation to regulate and endorse online gambling as a perfectly legal form of adult entertainment. Although this form of entertainment has existed since ancient times, and there is evidence that most cultures supported it in some form or another be it legally or illigally. Although this legislation is still pending, there are a number of Online Casinos that have opened their doors to offer play in South African Rands.

According to research the earliest Microgaming™ online casino to open was the Gaming Club in 1997, this company was located in South Africa. The Gaming Club is still in operation today and is owned by Carmen Media located in Gibraltar. Now boasting many online casinos which are operated under the Belle Rock Entertainment Group.

The biggest gambling market in Africa is South Africa and although horse racing goes back many years, casinos are a recent attraction that has really only taken off in the last 25 years and leading to rapid expansion of larger casinos throughout the continent.

Casinos in South Africa, as we know them, had an interesting start as gambling was prohibited in the 1965 Gambling Act. However the Leaders of the “Bantustan Homelands” of Transkei (Eastern Cape Province), Bophuthatswana (Mpumalanga Province), Ciskei (Eastern Cape Province) and Venda (Limpopo Province) legalised Casinos in their territories. Initially, two companies, Holiday Inn and Southern Sun negotiated Casino contracts with Bantustan Government.

In 1983, Mr Sol Kerzner, a former minority shareholder in Southern Sun Hotels, founded a new and dynamic company of Sun International. By the early 1990s, Sun International possessed all 18 homeland licenses in return for high taxation casino profits.

There has been talk for some time about legalizing and regulating online gambling in South Africa. Although no laws have been passed as of yet, the general sentiment regarding the research that has been done on the subject of online gambling, does indeed warrant the need for regulation.

Without a fair and protected gambling environment, citizens could be putting themselves at great risk. With proper legislation in place, like that in the UK online casinos scene, gamblers will have confidence knowing they are getting the fairest odds and will indeed get paid out their winnings.

Some online casinos, however, have been doing fair business in the South African online gambling scene for some time, despite the current state of affairs and lack of regulation. Casino Enterprises, who operates the well known and respected Piggs Peak Online Casino (based in Swaziland), has been up and running since 1997 – and although they were taken to task at one point, they continued to operate in South Africa until 2011 when they lost their appeal – in other words Gambling in South Africa has now had a stop put to it.

It is believed that the South African Government is looking into granting Online lisences, but when is purely another story.

Its is accepted that an online player may only play at a licensed online casino/poker room. Both parties have to make sure the player is over 18 and the correct procedure is taken to prevent under age gambling.

The minister will publish in the government gazette, the regulations regarding how these gambling operators may or may not advertise. Just note though, that this is not a threat to your freedoms as a gambler. This is in fact just there to make sure it is legal to gamble in South Africa, that you as a player and the public are protected against illegal operations and money laundering. Clearly the government hasnt highlighted the ‘direct taxation of gambling wages’ as a main topic behind all this, but no doubt, as they always do, they will benefit from drawing funds from this $35 billion a year global revenue source.