A resolution to fast-track the bill
South Africa’s National Gambling Policy Council (NGPC) has resolved to fast-track a bill addressing gambling-related harm and is drafting new advertising regulations, Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau said in a written reply to Parliament.
Tau said the NGPC has met twice since July 2025 to assess gambling-related challenges and shape policy responses aimed at addiction and weaker regulatory oversight. A Gambling Technical Committee has been set up under the council to review the National Gambling Amendment Bill, 2018.
“The resolution was to fast-track the development of a Bill to address gambling challenges in South Africa,” Tau said.
The 2018 bill has been stalled for years. It cleared the National Assembly but failed at the National Council of Provinces in December 2024, when only three provinces backed it, four voted against and two abstained. The bill went to a Mediation Committee, which filed its report on June 13, 2025. It still needs a two-thirds vote from that committee before it can return to Parliament.
As drafted, the bill would move regulation of the national and foreign lotteries to the National Lotteries Commission, ban dog racing, tighten casino licensing, and convert the National Gambling Board (NGB) into a National Gambling Regulator with stronger enforcement powers. It also carries broad-based black economic empowerment provisions for the sector.
Advertising rules move alongside the bill
Tau said his department is developing gambling advertising regulations in parallel with the legislation. The NGPC has flagged advertising’s role in the propensity to gamble, including its contribution to addiction.
The NGB is working with provincial gambling boards to write uniform national norms and standards for gambling advertising. Once finalized, the department expects to attach them to operator licences as conditions, giving provincial regulators a single set of rules to enforce rather than the patchwork that exists across South Africa’s nine provinces today.
Offshore operators still take the bulk of the market
The push comes as unlicensed offshore gambling continues to outpace the regulated market. IOL News has reported that illegal online operators divert more than R50 billion ($3.05 billion) in gross gambling revenue out of South Africa every year, with unlicensed sites accounting for close to two-thirds of all online gambling activity in the country, a trend consistent with the wider growth of unregulated online gambling worldwide.
The South African Bookmakers’ Association (SABA) has called the situation a crisis for licensed operators and consumers alike. CEO Sean Coleman said the public debate has focused on the wrong target.
“While much of the recent public and media debate has focused on the growth of legal online betting, the existential crisis lies in the scale and impact of illegal offshore operators that continue to target South African consumers unchecked,” Coleman said.
Most of the offshore sites operate out of jurisdictions such as Curacao, Malta, Gibraltar and the Philippines, where licences require little oversight. South Africa’s response so far mirrors moves elsewhere: Turkey has accelerated its own crackdown on illegal gambling through regulatory reform, and Greece has opened consultation on a reform bill aimed at its black market.
What happens next
Neither the bill nor the advertising rules have a confirmed timeline. The Gambling Technical Committee still has to complete its review of the 2018 amendment bill before it goes back to the Mediation Committee, and the NGB’s advertising norms are still being negotiated with provincial boards. Until either lands, the enforcement gap that offshore operators have exploited for years remains open, and SABA’s warning about the scale of that gap is likely to keep shaping the debate in Parliament.
Source: National Gambling Policy Council
