April 21, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — South African news source Business Day recently described efforts by that country’s government to regulate the practice of online gambling.
The story stems from the recent publication for public comment of a draft of South Africa’s National Gambling Board’s (NGB’s) plan for online gaming regulation. The document outlines the government’s near-term plans to enact a set of regulatory laws and processes around the act of Internet gambling in order to protect consumers and prevent criminal elements from exploiting the practice.
Of course, the larger motive in this plan to regulate Internet gaming may be to gain tax revenues. The article states that a 6 percent tax will be levied on all gaming revenue under the new regulations.
“Did SA really need to regulate the online industry?” the article asks. “Online gaming groups such as Silversands and Piggs Peak are already forging ahead, quite successfully, without regulations in place. One might argue there is little point in regulating online gaming as it will largely be ineffectual in the void that is cyberspace.”
Residents of countries where online gambling has been deemed illegal without the benefit of regulation may have a different opinion on that question.