South Africa: What Odds of an Online Gambling Ban?
``Online gambling is not just regulated by the Gambling Act, as each of the country's nine provinces also have their own gaming laws, while the Electronics Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act and the Reserve Bank Act touch on gaming by governing foreign exchange transactions.
``The new Bill will ban Internet gambling and the advertising of online casinos. Not only the operation of an online casino, but also gambling at such a casino will be banned and criminalised.
``According to IT attorney Reinhardt Buys, a February 2003 survey by the National Gambling Board found that 0.6% of South Africans gamble online (roughly 250 000 people). Merrill Lynch estimates 2001 online gaming revenues to have exceeded $7.106 billion worldwide…"