South Africa’s fight against online gambling is escalating, and this time, the target is the money spent on illegal offshore gambling platforms.
Licenced bookmakers—organisations that set odds—that are part of the South African Bookmakers Association (SABA), the trade association for online betting operators in the country, are calling on banks and payment providers within the country to block transactions to offshore gambling platforms. According to these operators, two-thirds of all online betting activity flows out of the country, costing the country over R50 billion ($2.9 billion) in revenue annually.
Online gambling without a local licence is illegal in South Africa, yet offshore platforms operate from jurisdictions like Curaçao or Malta.Â
These are jurisdictions that issue gambling licences, but those licences don’t apply in South Africa; yet, they actively target South African users through ads, easy sign-ups, localised apps, and frictionless payments.
Follow the money: Even if the platforms sit outside the country’s jurisdiction, the payments don’t. Every bet passes through local banks or payment providers, which, as SABA alludes, makes financial institutions enablers of an illegal system. Chasing these offshore companies to legally register in the country is a futile attempt when banks can simply cut off payment access. That’s SABA’s argument.
Yet, to pose an interesting theory, what happens if these offshore platforms pivot to cryptocurrency-based payments? It could make flows harder to capture.
Why this push now? Consumer protection is one reason. Users on these offshore platforms have no real protection, like guaranteed payouts, dispute channels, or legal claim to winnings. If a site refuses to pay out winnings, there’s no regulator to call.
It could also be about control: If regulators cut off offshore betting platforms, it could turn the attention of bettors to local platforms. Local bookmakers are losing ground to foreign ones. Yet, the poser: if the banks come through, would it really reduce offshore gambling, or will market forces find another way?
