CATEGORIES
- (37)Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
- (30)Auditors & Accountants
- (8)Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment
- (7)Built Environment
- (71)Communications & Digital Technologies
- (2)Company Law
- (2)Consumer Law
- (26)Courts
- (3)Criminal Law
- (1)Cybercrimes
- (2)Disaster Management
- (17)Education & Training
- (7)Electoral Law
- (117)Environmental Law
- (4)Family Law
- (170)Financial Sector
- (5)Fisheries & Aquaculture
- (8)General Interest
- (26)Health & Safety
- (24)Home Affairs
- (3)Housing
- (26)In the Spotlight
- (1)International Co-operation
- (78)Justice & Constitutional Development
- (65)Labour Law
- (19)Legal Practice Council
- (23)Local & Provincial Government
- (29)Minerals & Energy
- (1)Monetary Policy
- (2)National Development Plan
- (25)National Treasury
- (89)New Legislation
- (24)Opportunities for Public Comment
- (8)POPIA
- (338)Parliament
- (1)Practice Management
- (6)Presidency
- (18)Property Law
- (9)Public Service
- (4)Retirement Reform
- (17)Road Accident Fund
- (27)Safety and Security
- (11)Small Business Development
- (27)Social Development
- (11)Sport, Arts & Culture
- (15)State Owned Enterprises
- (4)State of Disaster (energy)
- (21)Taxation
- (8)Tourism
- (88)Trade, Industry & Competition
- (42)Transport
- (19)Water & Sanitation
- Show All
REMOTE GAMBLING: COULD A NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE BILL ADDRESS THE ISSUES?
- 04 November 2025
- Parliament
- SA Legal Academy
The National Assembly’s Trade, Industry & Competition Committee has begun the process of considering the merits or otherwise of preparing a committee Bill to deal with remote gambling and mitigate related societal issues of increasingly widespread concern. Prompted by a memorandum from Democratic Alliance MP and committee member Toby Chance, the process began on 4 November 2025 with a briefing from Daksha Kassan (Parliamentary Constitutional & Legal Services Office) on the procedures to be followed and likely timeframes.
According to Chance, while the 2008 National Gambling Amendment Act does deal to some extent with online/interactive/remote gambling, it has yet to be operationalised. This legislative ‘gap’ has left the industry unregulated. And it seems to be booming despite a ban on the activities concerned under the 2004 principal statute.
Chance also alluded to a policy ‘review’ in 2009 – possibly referring to the 2011 report of a gambling review commission established by former Trade & Industry Minister Rob Davies two years earlier. According to a media statement on the report’s recommendations issued by the then Department of Trade & Industry, among other things ‘the current prohibition of interactive gambling … (was found) to be undesirable as it fails to offer protection to South African punters’.
The 2018 National Gambling Amendment Bill still before Parliament was referred this year to a mediation committee, which resolved the impasse regarding concerns raised by the NCOP but not endorsed by the National Assembly committee concerned. Yet to be passed by the National Assembly and sent to the President for signature, the Bill focuses on administrative and governance matters possibly affecting remote gambling but not expressly dealing with it.
Chance also referred to plans for re-tabling a private member’s Remote Gambling Bill originally prepared by Dean Macpherson (now Public Works Minister in the Government of National Unity). The Bill lapsed when Parliament rose for the May 2024 elections. However, in November 2025 – in anticipation of re-introducing a possibly revised version of the Bill – Chance gazetted the procedurally required pre-tabling explanatory summary, also calling for public comments. SA Legal Academy reported on this at the time. Chance believes that information gleaned during that process would be helpful in drafting a committee Bill, should that option be pursued.
No mention was made of a Remote Gambling Bill tabled in 2015 by former DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis (now Cape Town mayor). That Bill was rejected by the National Assembly’s then Trade & Industry Committee, having failed to pass the routine desirability test. A National Gambling Amendment Bill tabled in 2018 by Davies might have addressed some of the issues concerned had the committee not been constrained by pre-2019 election deadlines. Most provisions in the Bill dealing with matters with worrying societal implications were removed – leaving the governance-Bill recently referred to a mediation committee and yet to be passed. At the time, the sixth Parliament was expected to process legislation addressing issues pivotal to provisions removed from the Bill. No legislation to that effect was ever tabled.
Against that somewhat disturbing backdrop, the committee has called for a departmental briefing on issues raised in Chance’s memorandum, along with a response on these matters from Parliament’s Constitutional & Legal Services Office.
- video recording of 4 November 2025 National Assembly Trade, Industry & Competition Committee meeting
- Parliamentary Monitoring Group report on decision to remove sections of the 2018 National Gambing Amendment Bill (since referred for mediation)
- April 2024 Remote Gambing Bill (lapsed)
- Remote Gambling Bill November 2024 explanatory summary
- SA Legal Academy report
- 2018 Remote Gambling Bill as originally tabled
- Bill’s ‘D’ version (referred to mediation committee)
- 2015 Remote Gambling Bill (rejected)
- 2011 media statement on gambling review commission report
- commission report
- 2008 National Gambling Amendment Act (not yet operationalised)
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
Follow us on X @SALegalAcademy (you can also join us on LinkedIn and Facebook)
If you use this information in articles, reports and social media posts of your own, please acknowledge SA Legal Academy Policy Watch as your source