While government looks to introduce the interactive gambling regulations, IT systems to monitor operators and curb fraudulent activities are yet to be put in place.
In August, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry requested that the implementation of the regulations on interactive gambling be delayed. Following the publishing of regulations for public comment in February, the department acknowledged that the legislation needed to be reviewed.
Interactive gambling was legalised with the passing of the National Gambling Amendment Bill, in May 2008, after the initial National Gambling Act did not provide for interactive gambling in SA. The Bill was drawn up as part of government's plans to tighten regulations on interactive gambling and reduce offshore control.
Parliament and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) are holding public hearings on interactive gambling regulations and will only table the final Bill once hearings have been completed.
The DTI says the National Gambling Board (NGB) would be tasked with monitoring all the operators and it is “developing its IT skills to handle this concern”.
The NGB has put measures in place to deal with illegal activities, such as the problems of cloning and hacking, but the DTI is concerned the measures are not “sufficient and strong enough”.
The legislation needed to be amended to deal with specifics, such as software tampering, cyber crime and money laundering, the DTI says.
Tighten controls
The department previously stated in Parliament that, apart from protecting players against the negative effects of gambling, the regulations would be aimed at preventing interactive gambling from being associated with criminal acts, like money laundering.
Operators would have to comply with Financial Intelligence Centre Act stipulations, and this would provide a greater security risk, as they would be in possession of important personal information.
According to the Act, individuals have to disclose personal details, like their ID number and proof of residential address. Players would have to create an account linked to a credit card or cheque account and present a bank stamp, as no cash transactions would be allowed. A maximum of R20 000 would be allowed in the player's account.
“Gambling operators would be required to meet all these requirements, but the department and the NGB have the biggest responsibility and we are currently preparing ourselves for it,” says the DTI.
The NGB would issue only 10 interactive gambling licences - all of them on a national level to operators that can prove they have a physical presence locally, and all financial transactions would also have to be located within SA.
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