Online gambling sites operating illegally in SA

TRADE, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has disclosed that the National Gambling Board (NGB) has recorded at least 90 online gambling websites that are currently operating illegally in South Africa.

- MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA

Tau said the illegal gambling websites are registered and licensed overseas.

“The National Gambling Board did not engage with the operators of the illegal gambling websites, and operators did not block their illegal sites as the National Gambling Board did not engage with them,” he said.

Tau revealed this when he was responding to parliamentary questions from Rise Mzansi MP Songezo Zibi, who enquired about the approaches used by the NGB to identify illegal gambling websites and the engagements undertaken by the board with South African network operators to block illegal online gambling websites in the past five financial years, among other things.

Zibi had also wanted to know about the steps taken by NGB with Google Africa to remove illegal gambling websites from their search engine.

In his written reply, Tau said the NGB has two personnel who dealt with the challenges posed by the illegal gambling websites.