Best South African Online Casinos Sites—Essential Info

Essential Criteria For Reviewing South African Online Casino Sites

Frankly speaking, when it comes to online gambling, there are many criteria that matter while choosing truly the best online casinos in South Africa out of so many available options. However, you should clearly understand that while there are many subjective criteria that are tightly connected to your personal gambling preferences and expectations, there are several requirements that any online casino UK or any other must follow to be considered the one worth considering to play with. We invite you to check these essential three criteria in the following sections below.

Gambling License

We strongly advise you to stay away from gambling websites without a license issued by a well known gambling authority, such as the Malta Gaming Authority, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the Gibraltar Gambling Commission, Costa Rica Gambling Authority, the UK Gambling Commission, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, Antigua and Barbuda Regulatory Commission, the Curacao eGaming Licensing Authority, the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission etc. Mind that online casino South Africa legal sites need to comply with all the gambling requirements and international standards in order to obtain a license. That’s why you can be absolutely sure that licensed gambling websites comply with all the high gambling standards, which means that your gambling there will certainly be a great experience. Besides, all your rights as a gambler are legally protected in a licensed SA casino.

However, if you come across a gambling website for South African casino enthusiasts that is not licensed, you risk dealing with a scam casino, which is quite a danger. First of all, scam casinos are aimed at fooling you, which means that you will definitely not make any winnings at all. Consequently, it may lead to an awful gambling experience and even result in some kind of phobia of dealing with online casinos at all, even if they are considered the best. Moreover, your cyber safety in unlicensed online casinos is also very doubtful since there’s a high risk of revealing of your personal secret data and bank info. That’s why in order to avoid unpleasant gambling experience and any other kind of undesirable consequences, we strongly recommend you to opt only for the licensed SA best online casinos.

Safety And Security

No denying, safety and security is a top priority of all internet users, especially the ones who are interested in gambling. You evidently don’t want your personal data to be stolen by someone on the web, huh? However, that’s what can happen if you neglect such an important criterion for reviewing best online casino in South Africa. In order to avoid any kind of safety issues on the web, we strongly advise you to make sure that a gambling website you want to play with is protected by cryptographic protocols, such as TLS or SSL, which are used to encrypt your secret personal and banking info so that nobody can use them without your awareness and consent. We highly discourage you from playing with gambling websites without TLS or SSL encryption because it’s very risky in terms of your cyber safety and security.

Fair Gambling In The Casino Online South Africa

Since you are interested in playing only in the best online casinos South Africa, you definitely want to be sure that all your gambling outcomes are absolutely fair and unbiased. For this reason, it’s highly important for you to make sure that a gambling website you intend to play with has been regularly tested by independent testing agencies, such as Technical Systems Testing (TST), eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA), Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), iTech Labs and so on. Mind that this kind of fairness certificate issued by one of the above mentioned independent testing agencies is as important as a license. That’s why we strongly insist on your making sure that a SA online casino you want to play with can prove its gaming fairness by possessing a certificate issued by eCOGRA, GLI, iTech Labs or any other respected and recognized independent testing agency.

Legal Gambling In SA Online Casino And Offline

Gambling in South Africa has been restricted for several centuries since 1673 and continued to be banned after the implementation of South Africa’s Gambling Act of 1965 that imposed an official ban on all forms of gambling except for horse racing betting, which was classified as a sporting activity rather than just gambling.

Despite all these legal bans, gambling was still quite popular in South Africa. There are South African bantustans (which are nominally independent areas known as homelands) of Bophuthatswana, Transkei, Ciskei, and Venda, where in the late 1970s, there started operating land based casinos. It wasn’t stopped by the government since those gambling facilities were aimed merely at native South Africans who lived in those areas, while most of the citizens didn’t get access to those gambling establishments. So, by 1995, there were estimated as many as over 2000 illegal land based casinos available for gaming across the country.

The legal situation with gambling substantially improved in 1994 when there was formed a new democratic government that legalized all forms of gambling. It was officially stated in the National Gambling Act of 1996. According to this act, there was instituted a South African gambling system that included licensed offline casinos, a single national lottery, and horse racing betting, which was reclassified as a form of gambling rather than just a sporting activity.

Frankly speaking, adoption of the National Gambling Act of 1996 was a considerable advancement since it substantially improved the overall gambling situation in the state. Because of this act, there were specified gambling norms that were unified across the country; different gambling notions were defined in order to avoid any kind of confusion; 40 gambling licenses were created and distributed across different provinces with indication of liability info. In addition, there was established the National Gambling Board in order to regulate and supervise gambling industry in South Africa.

However, in 2004, there were changes in the SA legislature. Specifically, there was introduced another National Gambling Act that completely repealed the National Gambling Act of 1996. According to the new National Gambling Act  of 2004, there was totally forbidden to both offer interactive gambling services as well as engage in interactive games, specifically internet games. Basically, this act banned all online casino operators (regardless of their license jurisdiction). It’s important for you to understand that this legal ban related to such interactive gambling activities as poker, casino, and bingo. As for online sports betting, online horse race betting, and bookmaking, all these activities are absolutely legal in South Africa according to the National Gambling Act of 2004.

As it turned out after its adoption, the National Gambling Act of 2004 wasn’t quite successful since gambling lingered immensely popular and people wanted it to be legal. So, in 2008, there was published The National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 that served to legalize interactive gambling in South Africa as well as make provisions for regulations of the gambling industry in the country. However, The National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 was extremely confronted by anti-money laundering authorities and land-based gambling houses (who are basically the interested parties), so this act has never been adopted.

In August of 2010, as a result of the North Gauteng High Court judgement, online gambling sites (even the offshore ones) were legally banned in South Africa. Basically, that’s because of the state’s jurisdiction dealing with online gambling transactions in South Africa. As a result of the North Gauteng High Court judgement, it became illegal to both offer online gambling services as well as engage in them. The only exception to this legal ban is online sports betting and licensed horse racing, which are legally allowed to South Africans.

In such a way, because of the North Gauteng High Court judgement, all the gamblers, online casinos, internet service providers, and banks that process online gambling payments are subject to either 10 years of imprisonment or a fine of R 10 million. In some cases, both fine and imprisonment may apply. What is more, even mass media engaged in transmitting or facilitating online gambling advertisements can also be held liable since it’s also considered breaking the North Gauteng High Court judgement.

While it might sound quite discouraging to learn that internet gambling is forbidden in South Africa, you can still go in for legally allowed sports betting and licensed horse racing. In addition, there’s still a hope that The National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 will eventually come into effect. So, let’s just wait and hope for the best!

South African Gambling Statistics

In case you are interested in gambling trends and statistics in your country, we are happy to share with you the following data regarding the popularity of different forms of gambling in South Africa. In such a way, as many as 96.9% of the responding SA gamblers are in love with the National Lottery, 22.7% enjoy playing scratch cards games, 11.6% are interested in charity jackpot competitions, 11.5% are in love with horse racing betting. In addition, 8.3% of respondents claimed that they have never been involved in any kind of gambling activities. Moreover, 5.5% of SA citizens admitted that they have been involved in occasional gaming without dealing with any kind of regular gambling activities (The National Prevalence Study 2006).

Talking about financial statistics, in the financial year of 2007, gambling activities monitored and regulated by the National Gambling Board brought to the state budget the licensed gross gambling revenue of R11.4 billion. Casinos derived 86.2% of that revenue. The same year, the National Gambling Board reported the total number of 455 raids and closures of gambling operations that were considered illegal.

In 2016, the gross gambling revenue from casinos, limited payout machines, the National Lottery, sports betting, and bingo was about R26.3 billion. In 2019, the SA gambling revenues are expected to rise to R30 billion. So, the gambling conditions in South Africa are expected to improve and become more favourable since it will be quite profitable for the government and state’s economy.

Popular Game Categories On Best SA Online Casino Sites

• Online Casino Slots (including Three Reels, Five Reels, I-slots, Progressive Jackpots, 3D slots, Reel Series, Rival Slots, Video Slots, classic slots etc.) — e.g., Da Vinci Diamonds, Cleopatra, Wheel of Fortune On Tour, Triple Red Hot 7, Triple Diamond, Pixies of the Forest, Wheel of Fortune Ultra 5 Reels, Medieval Money, Shamrockers, Family Guy, Silent Movie, Crown Of Egypt, The 100,000 Pyramid, Lucky Larry Lobstermania 2, Double Diamond, Treasures of Troy, Wolf Run, Merlin’s Millions, Gorilla Go Wild, Chilli Gold, Raging Rhino, Bingo Billions, Monopoly Big Event, Manic Millions, Irish Riches, Zeus 3, Wheel of Fortune Triple Extreme Spin, Snack Time, Zeus, Cash Stampede, Spin Sorceress, Star Mania, The Snake Charmer, Medusa, Monster Wins, Mad Mad Monkey, Judge Dredd, King Kong, Irish Eyes, Doctor Love, Emerald Isle, Bars and Bells etc.
• Roulette — e.g., Spin the Wheel, French Roulette, Shangri La Live Roulette, NetEnt Live Roulette, Evolution Gaming Live Roulette, Classic American Roulette, American Roulette, Zoom Roulette, Roulette — High Roller, European Roulette Gold, American Roulette, Blaze Live Roulette, Classic European Roulette, European Roulette, Svensk Roulette, Premier Roulette Diamond Edition etc.;
• Table Games —  e.g., Tri Card Poker, Andar Bahar, Spin the Wheel, Classic European Roulette, Roll the Dice, Pai Gow Poker, Classic Baccarat, American Roulette, Caribbean Hold’em, Let ‘Em Ride, Lucky Ladies Blackjack, Single Deck Blackjack Pro, Let ‘Em Ride Classic, 3 card Hold’em, European Roulette, Craps, 21+3 Blackjack, Oasis Poker, Classic Tri-Card Poker, Classic American Roulette, Double Ball Roulette, Classic Craps, Baccarat VIP, Teen Patti Rapid, Caribbean Stud Poker, KeyBet Roulette, Red Dog, 6 in 1 Blackjack, Teen Patti Pro, Baccarat, Multi Hand Blackjack, Punto Blanco, Vegas Three Card Rummy etc.;
• Video Poker —  e.g., Video Poker, Joker Poker 52 Hands, Jacks or Better 52 Hands, Jacks or Better 3 Hands, Bonus Deuces Wild 1 Hand, Bonus Poker 1 Hand, Bonus Poker Deluxe 1 Hand, Jacks or Better 1 Hand, Joker Poker 3 Hands, Jacks or Better 10 Hands, Deuces Wild 1 Hand, Double Bonus Poker 1 Hand, Double Double Bonus Poker 1 Hand, Double Double Jackpot Poker 1 hand, Double Jackpot Poker 1 Hand, Joker Poker 1 Hand, Joker Poker 10 Hands, Loose Deuces 1 Hand etc.;
• Poker — e.g, Aces and Eights, Jackpot Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Hold’em, All American Double Up, Classic Tri-Card Poker, Deuces Wild, Tri Card Poker, Joker Poker MH, Deuces and Joker, Louisiana Double, Joker Wild Double Up, Jacks or Better MH, Deuces Wild MH, Caribbean Stud Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe, Bonus Poker etc.;
• Blackjack — e.g., European Blackjack, Atlantic City Blackjack Gold, Classic Blackjack, American Blackjack, 21 Burn Blackjack, Casino Stud Poker, Classic Blackjack Gold, European Blackjack MH, Premier Blackjack High Streak Gold, Single Deck Blackjack, European Blackjack, Blackjack Multihand, Live Common Draw Blackjack High, Classic Double Deck Blackjack, Double Exposure Blackjack MH, Multi-Hand Premier Blackjack Gold, Evolution Gaming Live Blackjack, Double Deck Blackjack, Perfect Pairs, Single Deck Blackjack, Classic Single Deck Blackjack, Sonya Blackjack, NetEnt Live Common Draw Blackjack Low, Multihand Vegas Downtown Blackjack, Pirate 21 Blackjack, Zappit Blackjack etc.;
• Scratch Cards — e.g, Cavalier Cash, Penguin Payday, Beach Bums, Itchin’ 2 Win, Gunslingers Gold, Tiki Treasure, Cast for Cash, Pirates Pillage;
• Card Games — e.g, Pai Gow Poker, Single Deck Blackjack, Let ‘Em Ride, Classic Baccarat, European Blackjack, Perfect Pairs, Caribbean Hold’em, New Blackjack, Double Deck Blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Let ‘Em Ride Classic, Classic Double Deck Blackjack, Classic Single Deck Blackjack, Zappit Blackjack, Classic Tri-Card Poker, Vegas Three Card Rummy, Classic Blackjack, Baccarat, Tri Card Poker, Teen Patti Pro, Teen Patti Rapid, Andar Bahar etc.;
• Bingo —  e.g., Pesca Bingo, Go-Go Bingo, Bingo Ribeirinhos, Bingo Goal, Tribo Bingo, 30-Ball Bingo, American Bingo, 80-Ball Bingo, Amazonia Bingo, European Bingo, Bingo Cataratas;
• Live Casino Games — e.g., Live Football Studio, Live Dragon Tiger, Celebrity Blackjack Party, Live Roulette — Foxwoods,  No Commission Baccarat, Live Baccarat Squeeze, Live Blackjack, Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Dragonara, Exclusive BlackJack, Live Speed Baccarat, Texas Holdem Ultimate, Live Lightning Roulette, Live Dragon Tiger, Baccarat card games, Dream Catcher, Speed Auto Roulette, VIP Blackjack, Live Blackjack Collection, Dragon Tiger, Salon Prive Collection, Salon Prive Collection, Baccarat Controlled Squeeze, Roulette Lobby, Suomiruletti, Live Baccarat Collection, Live Three Card Poker, Three Card Poker etc.