South Africa banned all forms of online gambling: a sharp decision for a country that has been for a long time one of the most liberal country with the operators of gambling.

10 years of imprisonment for any offender, this is why illegal companies will have to pay if they don’t respect the South African laws. The Minister of Industry and Trade of South Africa has been caught, as a surprise, by the highest national court. While the government was still waiting for a final report on the matter before deciding whether to legalise online gaming, the court had decided to not to.

Any online gambling is now banned in South Africa since the 20^th of August until the possibility of an eventual legalisation of the market by the government. Operators are forced to close their sites. If they don’t do it, the operators will receive a fines penalty up to 1.36 billion Euros and / or 10 years in jail!

The effects of this decision are multiples. Now, the Internet service providers (ISP) should block access to illegal sites, it does remind you anything? According to the ruling court, all advertising is banned; the Internet surfer caught out will have to pay a million dollar fine and / or 10 years of imprisonment. Moreover, South Africa wishes to enforce the law, arguing that when the country will have decide to liberalise its market, only the companies that  have respected the new law may apply for licenses on the  D-Day.

If you are concerned by the subject regarding the laws on gambling world, we observe that, by any way, all countries are starting to care about gambling online games and try to apply laws about their own country. Most of them want to get interests from this business too.

The standoff of the CGGB

A hasty decision by the CGGB has been taken towards operators. The Commission "Gauteng Glambling Board”, which actively campaign for banning online casino, has won its first battle against the online gaming industry by putting pressure on justice. Nevertheless, the war is not over and many battles could take place in the next months. Lucky Lukhwareni, legal director of “Gambling Board” of the province of Gauteng has warned market participants whom wish to continue:" We contacted the media to prevent online casinos to stop their illegal activities. If they continue, we will arrest them and we will attack them to justice”, a declaration that has already reacted Fin24, local financial site, which it believes that "a new rule about something that is not controllable." The online gaming industry represents between 40 and 100 million of Euros in South Africa. I suppose that the country wants also its part if the cake and by prohibiting the online gambling industry, it expect to regularise the market and get profit later on.

Governments are starting to manage and control Internet but it is quite messy and it can be difficult to try to manage billion of pages.