Until relatively recently, online gambling law was quite a grey area in South Africa. The main reason for this was that the relevant laws and statutes covering gambling were not up to date in terms of these new forms of gambling made possible by the Internet. So online gambling and poker became popular among South Africans. The most well-known 'local' online casino, Piggs Peak (situated in the neighbouring territory of Swaziland), offered both online casino gambling and online poker to South African players. It flourished for a good few years.
Then the situation changed, as the spotlight fell on this hitherto effectively unregulated industry.
Sportpesa is one of the most well-known online sports betting sites in Africa and the South African version is seen as one of the best platforms of the brand on review sign me up Score: 2. Top 2020 South African Online Casinos. The listing below respresents the top South Afircan online casino gambling sites for 2020. These gambling brands are all well established and have been fully vetted and tested by our team of experts.
The South African government promulgated the National Gambling Act of 2004, which made it illegal to engage in what it termed 'interactive gambling services' and the offering or advertising of these services for South Africans. By 'interactive' the law refers to Internet games. This covers both casino games and poker games, whether offered by operators inside South Africa or outside of its borders. But there is an important distinction that is identified.
While online casino and poker games were made unlawful, online sports betting and online horse race betting were specifically made legal. This is as long as the operator is fully licensed by one of the South African provincial gambling licensing boards. So, for example, the most popular South African sports betting website, SportingBet, is fully licensed by the Western Cape Gambling Board and operates completely legally inside the country. It is used by thousands of sports bettors every day.
In the meantime, however, Piggs Peak continued to offer both online casino and online poker, effectively under the impression that online gambling offered from an offshore location was not adequately covered in the Gambling Act. They took this all the way to the North Gauteng High Court in an effort to get a legal stamp of approval on their services, but were ultimately unsuccessful and were forced to bar South Africans from playing.
In concert with this, South African banks do not allow bank accounts and credit cards to be used to transfer funds to online casinos. However, it is still possible to do so using online banking methods such as NETeller or uKash, etc.
At the same time it was – and still is – recognised that online gambling is a huge industry that attracts many South Africans, and that the problem is not so much one of whether it should or should not be legalised, but more one of how to regulate it. To this end the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 was drawn up with a view to bringing it before Parliament in order to have online gambling legalised and regulated. The amendment attracted a lot of opposition from land-based casinos, for many of the same reasons as the situation in America, where these casinos feared losing customers and revenue to their online competition. The fact remains, thought, that there is currently legislation on the books and quite possibly in the pipeline that will make online gambling legal for South Africans.
While the above is quite clear, there are of course plenty of overseas online casinos that offer online gambling to South Africans, and online payment methods that can be used. And there remains every possibility that online gambling will soon be legalised in the country, once the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 goes through Parliament and is signed into law.
Of course sports betting is fully legal for South Africans. At the moment betting on horse racing predominates, but as more sports betting websites emerge and broadband and mobile Internet access increases, this is likely to change, with a swing towards sports betting. South Africa is, after all, a sports mad nation.
Companies like PwC expect gambling activities and revenues to continue to grow, indicating that the country's appetite shows no sign of waning. And in the face of this, the legalisation and regulation of online gambling looks likely to follow shortly. This is especially buoyed by the realisation that in South Africa, as in the rest of the world, the most important factors are safe access and responsible gambling. Given that South Africans have ways of circumventing the laws, this becomes even more of an imperative.
In light of the widespread availability of online gambling and the Internet's ability to make national borders permeable, it appears to be in everyone's interests for the National Gambling Amendment of 2008 to become law, so that the industry can operate transparently, safely and responsibly for South African players. It has been reported by PwC that the South African government had plans to issue ten online casino gambling licences in the period around 2009, but this has obviously not happened yet. We await the next roll of the dice...
If you’re searching for a list of the best South Africa gambling sites, look no further. We’ve constructed this page to bring you that list along with lots
of other helpful gambling-related information. By the time you wrap up reviewing this page, you should have a good feel for which of these gambling sites is the
right fit for your specific needs.
On this page, you’re going to find everything you need to know about gambling online in South Africa. Up first, we’ve got our list of the best South African
gambling websites. After that, we’ll fill you in on why we selected our top picks. Finally, we’ll wrap things up with gambling site reviews, the scoop on
legality, and FAQs.
For those of you ready to get started immediately with online gambling, don’t miss the chart below. Here, we’ve gathered up our top picks for the best South
Africa gambling sites. These are our most trusted picks, and you’ll be in good hands gambling at any one of them. To learn more about why we’ve selected these
websites, be sure to check out the next section below.
Rank | DE Gambling Site | Deposit Bonus | Products | Get Started | |
#1 | 100% Up To €250 |
| Visit Site | ||
#2 | Europa Casino | 200% Up To €500 |
| Visit Site | |
#3 | 100% Up To €400 |
| Visit Site | ||
#4 | 22Bet | 100% Up To €300 |
| Visit Site | |
#5 | 100% Up To €400 |
| Visit Site |
Some of you might not be ready to select a South African gambling site just yet. If that’s the case, have no fear since we have tons of other information
below to help you absorb all of the knowledge you’re looking for about online gambling. Simply come back to this portion of the page when you’d like to check
out our list of top picks.
If you’re looking to learn as much as possible about South African gambling sites, be sure to read this entire page, so you don’t miss a thing. However, if
you’re short on time or just looking for certain aspects, then don’t miss the jump links below. You can use these links to navigate to different portions of
this page.
If this is your first time visiting our website, then you’re probably wondering why you should trust our picks and opinions. To help you gain comfort,
we’ve built this section to help you gain insight into our in-depth review process that helped us come up with the short list of best South African
gambling sites above. As you’ll see below, we don’t take our selection process lightly.
Before we get any further, there’s an essential fact you should know. Unlike many other websites out there, we never accept a dime from gambling sites for
them to make a spot on our top pick lists. Instead, websites have to earn their way onto our list by being one of the best of the best. When inspecting a
potential website for our top picks list, we consider a total of ten different criteria. Each one of these criteria plays a vital role in how we rank a South
Africa gambling site.
Before digging into anything else, the first thing that we checked into was if a potential gambling site accepted players from South Africa. Should you choose to gamble at any one of our top picks above, you’ll have no problem registering and playing as a South African resident.
After confirming that South African players were welcome, we dug into the betting options provided by all potential South Africa gambling sites on our list. Our goal here was to see how broad of an assortment of sportsbook- and casino-related wagers were provided. On our list of the top picks above, you’ll only find gambling sites with a massive variety of betting options so that you can do all of your wagering in one spot.
Another important thing to us is that you’re earning as much money as possible when you win your bets. To aid this, we’ve compared the lines and payouts for each of our recommendations above to make sure that their offers are competitive with the rest of the gambling industry. Should you gamble at any one of our best South African gambling sites, you’ll be getting some top bang for your buck.
With important things like your hard-earned dollars and personal information on the line, it’s vital that you only gamble on a website that’s got top-notch safety and security measures in place. With that in mind, our list of suggestions above only contains sites that we’re fully confident will protect your data and money.
One of the more difficult things to research is the reputation and history of any given online gambling site. Luckily for you, you benefit from our long-term experience in this industry. We’ve scrubbed our collective knowledge to make sure that we only listed websites above that don’t have checkered pasts.
When you’re trying to gamble online, it’s a pain when you’re dealing with a website that’s difficult to use. To help you avoid dealing with this yourself, we’ve personally tested out the ease of use for all of our top picks above. Should you decide to work with any one of them, we’re confident you’ll be able to use them without any hassles or snags thanks to their excellent user interfaces.
It’s pretty easy to make bonus cash when you gamble online. However, all gambling sites are not created equal in the bonus department. We’ve checked out every one of our potential websites to investigate their bonus potential. On our list of the best South Africa gambling sites, you’ll find websites with some of the best bonus potentials in the industry.
Because waiting for your money isn’t any fun, we also investigated the withdrawal speeds of any potential South African gambling site we were considering. Our goal was to pinpoint which websites offered above-industry-average withdrawal speeds. On our list of top picks, you’ll only find gambling sites offering some of the fastest withdrawal speeds possible.
It’s vital to us that you’re in good hands should you have a question or issue while gambling online. With that in mind, we personally tested the customer service of each of our top picks above to ensure they offer some of the best support in the industry. We’re confident you’ll be taken good care of if you choose to work with any one of our recommendations above.
One last thing that we look for in a top South Africa gambling site is mobile compatibility. Our goal is to ensure that you have the option to gamble from your phone or tablet if you’d like to. For each of our selections above, you’ll find a mobile-friendly website allowing you to wager from anywhere at any time.
If you’re interested in seeing a full list of websites that we suggest you avoid, click on the link below. This link will take you to our blacklisted gambling sites page. On it, you’ll find every one of the websites out there that we don’t trust. Do yourself a favor, and don’t deposit a dime on any of the sites found on this page.
Understandably, you might want to read more on each of our recommended
websites before you sign up with one of them. With that in mind, we’ve included
links below to our in-depth reviews on each one of them. Here, you can gain a
greater understanding of what each one of them brings to the table.
If you reside in South Africa, you’re lucky in the fact that you’ve got it
easier than any other African country when it comes to gambling. Since the
1990s, South Africa has been at the forefront of gambling laws and legislation
to allow their residents to gamble safely. The good news is that if you’re
looking for South Africa gambling sites, it’s totally legal thanks to steps
taken by the government in the 2000s.
To learn more information about gambling laws and legislation in South Africa
and other African countries, check out the link below. Here, you’ll be able to
get a more in-depth look at the legal landscape for your particular country.
Just in case you’ve still got some questions, we wanted to include this
section. Below, you’ll find a collection of frequently asked questions relating
to online gambling in South Africa. To see the answer to any one of these
questions, you just have to click on the question itself.
Yes, it is safe to gamble online. The most important thing for you to do is find a trusted gambling site for your online betting. If you’d like to work with one of the best and most trustworthy websites in the industry, be sure to check out our suggested sites at the top of this page.
Your goal should be to find the one that offers you the most of everything you’re searching for in a gambling site. To see ideas on things you should consider and view other tips for finding the right website for you, check out the link below.
Yes! Many online gambling websites allowing residents of South Africa to wager provide mobile-friendly websites. Each one of our suggested picks at the top of this page offers mobile compatibility so that you can wager from your phone or tablet.
On average, it doesn’t take that long at all to get started with online gambling. In many cases, you can be up and running in as little as 10 minutes. To get started, first create an account at the gambling site of your choice. Then, deposit funds using an instant funding method like Skrill, Neteller, or Bitcoin. Once your funds are confirmed, you can begin gambling!
Absolutely not! As a South African resident, there’s a large number of gambling websites out there that will accept you. Our goal with this page was to help you identify the best of the best available to you. Our suggestion would be for you to work with one of our top picks so that you’re working with one of the top gambling sites in the industry.
We hope that we’ve been able to help you soak up all of the knowledge you
were looking for relating to South African gambling sites. If you’ve never come
to our website before, we’d suggest you take a minute to check into some of the
other gambling-related content that we have to offer. We’ve built this website
to be a one-stop shop for gamblers of all walks, and what you’ve found here
today is just a smidge of the overall picture. Thank you for stopping by, and
best of luck with your future wagers!