South African Casino Gambling

For much of the country’s history, gambling was downright illegal in South Africa, and it wasn’t until 1996 that some forms of gambling – including casino gambling – were legalized and regulated under a legal framework which began to provide licensing and which created a national lottery. Still, South African casinos have been famous world-wide for quite a while.

The legal restriction of gambling began way back in 1673. In 1965, the ban on gambling became official still casinos began to surface in the 70s, in the bantustans of Venda, Ciskei, Transkei and Bophuthatswana. These establishments were of course illegal, but they were successful and their success spawned other such operations all over the country. By 1995, an estimated 2,000 illegal casinos operated in South Africa, making the passing of a regulatory bill quite a necessity.

In 1996, the National Gambling Act was passed, licensing and regulating casinos and creating the National Lottery.

The National Lottery has become the most popular form of gambling in the country: according to a 2006 study, over 86% of those questioned played in the National Lottery. Slot machines were also quite popular: around 27% of the gambling public favored slots. Charity jackpots, scratch cards and horse racing were also among the most popular forms of gambling.

After the 1996 gambling legislation made legal gambling possible, casinos have sprung up in all the major urban centers as well as in locations frequented by tourists.

According to the South African National Gaming Board, in the 2006/2007 fiscal year, gross gambling revenue totaled an amazing R13.52 billion, up more than R2 billion from the previous year. Most of that money (86%) came from legal casino operations.

Illegal operations continued to pop up, and the authorities have undertaken 455 raids on illegal gambling businesses during the 2006/2007 period.

The bottom line: South African Casinos are among the most respected and most popular in the world. Many of them are set up in pristine, scenic locations, and almost all of them come with restaurants, conference centers and entertainment for every member of the family. Generally speaking, South African casinos are never stand-alone operations, but rather parts of a larger entertainment complex. The competitive prop deals, the excellent incentives, and poker rakeback-like loyalty rewards make South African casino gambling one of the best in the world.

Besides the money wagered in various land-based casinos, the National Lottery is also responsible for a massive turn-over of gambling funds.

Wagering at the track on horse racing used to be the only legal form of gambling in the country before 1996. Given its rather intricate nature and relative inability to attract new gamblers, horse racing can no longer effectively compete with Casino gambling and the National Lottery in terms of player numbers or generated revenue.