The South African Bookmakers’ Association (Saba) has proposed a number of tech-led interventions to deal with illegal online gambling, claiming that unlawful offshore operators account for about 62% of online gambling activity in the country.
Saba CEO Sean Coleman told a media conference on Tuesday that the association is also in discussions with the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), which has undertaken to form a task team to focus on meaningful banking interventions. Sabric and Saba signed an memorandum of understanding in late 2023 and have met twice in the last six months.
“South African banks and credit card institutions serve as a conduit between the South African online gambler’s banking account and the foreign-based gambling website operator’s banking account without which the unlawful gambling transaction would not be able to occur,” Coleman said.
According to a report from technical intelligence platform Yield Sec, which was commissioned by Saba, 2 084 unlicensed gambling websites actively targeted South Africans last year. Around 16 million people, or 27% of the population, are estimated to have engaged with illegal platforms in the past year.
Coleman claimed illegal operators are estimated to be diverting over R50-billion in gross gambling revenue offshore annually, depriving South Africa of significant tax income and social contributions. They do not pay 15% VAT, corporate tax or a 6.5% tax on gross gaming revenue, he said.
He urged banks and regulators to curtail illegal gambling.
DNS blocking
Saba has proposed DNS (domain name system) blocking – a security technique that prevents users from accessing specific websites – as one of the first lines of defence.
Another option is IP blocking or geofencing. IP blocking denies access to specific IP addresses or ranges, while geofencing is a broader method that restricts access based on a user’s geographical location.
“This is applicable in a number of jurisdictions, and one that has worked very well is the UK, with the UK Gambling Commission issuing cease-and-desist letters to various jurisdictions and ensuring that those sites are geo-blocked to their customers,” Coleman said.
Read: No, online gambling has ‘not been banned in South Africa’
He said “deep packet inspection” and “layer 7 filtering”, which inspect network traffic based on the content and application data, could also be utilised.
The harmful effects of online gambling have made headlines in recent months, with the toll it’s taking on social grant recipients and students being discussed in parliament.
According to Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers, who has called for an advertising ban on online gambling platforms, “a number of South African institutions” estimate that more than 20% of South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grants are being gambled online.
Coleman said Saba and the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation are looking at certain interventions and guardrails.
“It’s unconscionable to think that we do not have a digital self-exclusion database. We’ve engaged with a very dysfunctional National Gambling Board. They haven’t come on board. Everything is still done on a fairly manual basis, and that doesn’t help the industry,” he said.
He said one option is government departments providing controlled access to the Sassa and National Student Financial Aid Fund databases to prevent onboarding customers “at the point of first instance”.
Read: Online casinos feast on social grants – Pick n Pay boss calls for ad ban
“This is a solvable problem. We have the data, the technology and the partnerships to act. We also have good legislation in place with legal case law precedent. What’s needed now is alignment between regulators, government, the banking sector and law enforcement to protect South Africans from illegal gambling harm.” – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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