Tom Tuxworth from Betfair recently addressed a South African Parliamentary committee on the legalisation of online gambling
In his address Tuxworth recommended that the country reverse laws brought in during 2010 and legalise online gambling. He claimed that not doing so will quickly lead to people using unregulated offshore gambling websites and leave the consumer unprotected.
Ladbrokes, one of the UK’s leading bookmakers, caught onto this in September 2010 and promptly launched a South African betting website as soon as they were granted a license.
If the land casino industry in South Africa is anything to go buy, the online gambling industry in South Africa is potentially worth vast sums of money. Tuxworth is reported to have used information from the H2 Gambling Capital and Gambling Compliance in his address in order to back up this view. He suggests that online gambling in South Africa could generate as much as R6 billion in revenue of which R1 billion would be contributed in taxes to the state each year.
Furthermore Tuxworth provided information which shows that the industry is expected to grow by around 10 percent a year until 2015 meaning that the state would receive an even larger amount.
Online gambling was made illegal in South Africa in 2010, however, a recent commission has recommended changes to legislation. Tuxworth argued that a change in legislation could have numerous additional benefits for South Africa. He suggested that it would create the opportunity for South Africa to become a leading technological hub for the industry which in turn would lead to the creation of numerous jobs and economic benefits.
Whilst there are clearly a large number of benefits to the legalisation of online gambling, potential players and operators may still have to wait a long time before any real progress is made. However, it is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
