It is no secret that many South African like to gamble every once in a while. Whether it be on the race track, on their favourite sports team, or in an actual casino, the excitement that comes with placing a bet, and maybe even winning it, is simply unmatched.
With more and more people having access to high-speed broadband internet, many have already flocked to online gambling sites that cater to South African players. According to the current laws, gambling in the form of casino games, bingo, and poker is actually prohibited in South Africa when done at an unlicensed casino. However, sports betting is perfectly legal.
Because of this, there are only local legally operating sportsbooks targeting South African players and foreign online casinos. These foreign online casinos often operate from countries like Curacao and Malta, where gambling laws are considerably looser. They have valid licenses in place issued by regulatory institutions like the Malta Gaming Authority and the government of Curacao and are legally able to market their products and games to (potential) South African players.
For South African players, in turn, it is completely legal to visit, deposit, and play at these foreign online casinos, as long as any winnings are neatly declared and paid tax on. Online casinos have evolved quite a bit over the years and aren’t the simple software-based roulette and blackjack-offering sites they used to be any more.
Nowadays, online casinos in South Africa are packed to the brim with all sorts of slots, table games, and even live dealer games that are streamed live in HD quality from professional casino studios and sometimes even real casinos.
Types of Online Gambling in South Africa
There are quite a few different games of chance that South African players can play via the internet. Think of playing slots, bingo, poker, participating in lotteries, sports betting, scratching online scratch cards, and playing live blackjack and roulette.
Most South African online casinos feature traditional casino table games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, and hundreds, if not thousands, of online slot machines. These slot machines come in all sorts and sizes and cover all sorts of themes, ranging from Ancient Egypt to Pirates and Vikings.
Online Slots
For retro slot fans, there are nostalgic slots available with just a single pay line, whilst modern video slots can have anywhere from 20 to 100,000+ pay lines through the recently developed Megaways system. Modern online slots also have all sorts of quirky built-in bonus mechanisms, such as free spins, walking wilds, and even expanding reel sets.
Table Games
However, slots aren’t the only type of game of chance that is offered in a much more modern way through the internet nowadays. Traditional casino table games like blackjack and roulette are also totally revamped. Players have the opportunity to place all sorts of side bets and can even win up to 2,000x multipliers by playing the latest live roulette games, such as Quantum Roulette and XXXtreme Lightning Roulette.
Sports Betting
If you prefer to bet your money on real-world sports events rather than some digital game of chance, then sports betting might be more your cup of tea. South African sports betting platforms allow you to do just that and provide you with many betting markets and options.
Nowadays, players can bet on all sorts of sports, ranging from football to tennis, and even e-sports like Counterstrike: GO, DOTA, and League of Legends. Bets can be placed both pre-match and in-play, and punters are allowed to place single bets or combine multiple bets and create their own fully customised and, in some cases, very complex betting slip.
If neither traditional games of chance nor sports betting float your boat, you might want to participate in lottery drawings instead.
Lotteries
By participating in lotteries, you stand a chance of winning life-changing amounts of money. Most South African online casinos allow you to purchase lottery tickets from both your smartphone and desktop PC, and some even have live drawings every few hours or so.
Online Poker
If you want to take your chances into your own hands rather than having Lady Luck decide on them, you might want to play a hand or two of online poker. Online poker is available in quite a broad selection of South African online casinos and specialised poker rooms. Here, you can play against other players and socialise while playing using the built-in chat feature.
Most online poker rooms even organise so-called ‘’satellite’’ tournaments, which you can attend to try to win real-life tournament tickets.
Online Bingo
If you’re not really that much into gambling but just want to socialise instead, online bingo might be more suitable for you. With online bingo, you buy virtual bingo tickets and join a bingo room together with other players. Whoever dabs his or her numbers off first wins the bingo round!
South Africa Online Casino Bonuses
One of the most attractive things about South African online casinos, compared to land-based ones, is that they offer generous welcome bonuses to both new and existing players. By giving away bonuses, they hope to lure in potential customers that stay with them rather than go to play somewhere else.
This has resulted in groups of savvy bonus hunters that stroll the internet, looking for the best possible bonus at South African online casinos. After all, there are many online casinos offering all sorts of bonuses, like free spins, deposit bonuses, cash back, and even no deposit bonuses to South African players. A lot of value can be gained by claiming these bonuses, and in some cases, the house edge can even be reduced to near zero by playing with them.
What to Check Before Accepting a Casino Bonus Offer
You may have heard stories from friends and relatives that had their money ‘’trapped’’ when they accepted a casino bonus offer. For this reason, it is important you read the bonus terms and conditions of any casino bonuses thoroughly before accepting one. By doing this, you know exactly what you can expect from the bonus and won’t face any unwanted surprises.
- Wagering Requirements – The wagering requirements of a casino bonus state how many times you have to wager received bonus funds before you will be able to withdraw any winnings to your bank account or e-wallet.
- Maximum Wager – In most cases, you can only wager a certain amount per hand, game round or spin when playing through the wagering requirements of a bonus. You should not bet more than this as it can void your bonus and any winnings made with it.
- Bonus Duration – Most casino bonuses are only valid for a specific timeframe. Usually, a casino bonus lasts 7, 14, or 30 days. It is important to check how long a bonus will last before accepting one, as you might not have enough time to play through its requirements.
Payment Methods at South African Online Casinos
You have to deposit funds into your online casino account before you are able to play your favourite online casino games. Luckily, most online casinos accept a wide variety of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, e-wallets, online banking, prepaid vouchers, and even cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum.
The most commonly accepted payment methods at South African online casinos include:
EasyEFT, Skrill, Neteller, ecoPayz, entropay, Maestro, Visa, MasterCard, Instant Banking, Bitcoin, and Paysafecard.
Although these are all easy-to-use payment methods, you should know beforehand that most of these payment methods can only be used as a deposit method. This means that you will have to find another way to withdraw your winnings from the casino site eventually.
South African Online Casinos Safety and Reliability
Before signing up at an online casino, filling in your personal details, and making a deposit, it is important to do some due diligence and double-check whether you’re dealing with a safe and reliable online casino or bookmaker. Remember: not every online casino is fair and just in this world, and there are many unregulated and unlicensed online casinos looking to steal funds and personal data from their users.
When signing up at an online casino, you should check for certain logos in the footer of the casino site. Some of these logos include the logos of the National Gambling Board, eCOGRA, MGA, the Gambling Commission, and IBAS.
- The National Gambling Board – The National Gambling Board is an institution that is responsible for the oversight of the regulation of the entire gambling industry in South Africa. Whenever you see its logo on a casino site, you know that this site is under supervision by this entity and most likely won’t cheat on its players.
- eCOGRA – eCOGRA is a British independent testing agency that checks up on the fairness of online gambling software. Whenever you see this logo, it means that the casino site lets eCOGRA verify the fairness of its games on a yearly or bi-yearly basis, meaning that they aren’t likely to tamper with the outcome of the games in any way.
- MGA – The MGA logo stands for the Malta Gaming Authority, which is the gaming control board of Malta. This entity regulates and licenses dozens of online casinos that also cater to South African players.
- Gambling Commission – The Gambling Commission is the UK’s institution that is responsible for regulating and supervising the gambling law in the country. A handful of South African online casinos are regulated and licensed by this entity.
- IBAS – The IBAS stands for The Independent Betting Adjudication Service, which is a third-party that specialises in settling disputes between online casino sites and their players. If you ever face any problems with your account, you can reach out to them to explain the situation.
What to Look for in a South African Online Casino
Apart from a great welcome bonus, a broad selection of the type of casino game(s) you want to play, and the payment method(s) you plan on using, a South African online casino should be easy to use, licensed, have a good reputation among players.
Luckily, you can check all of these criteria before signing up and making a deposit. There are many casino comparison sites out there nowadays that you can use to compare the different offerings of online casinos, such as onlinecasino-southafrica.co.za.
Online Casino Tax for South African Players
Although you might wonder whether you have to pay any tax on your winnings as a South African player, we are happy to inform you that winnings aren’t taxed at South African online casinos. The South African Revenue Service (SARS) doesn’t see winnings as profit-making at all.
However, if you’re a professional gambler, for instance, by betting on sports or as a poker player, you will be required to declare your gambling profits, and these will be taxed as if they are your regular job.
Play at Non south African online casinos?
As you know by reading this article, the casinos you can play from SA are all located outside of SA. Beside some of the specific brands as Springbok and Yebo casino, most ‘international’ brands DO accept South Africans. For example you could try playing a New Zealand online casino as found on onlinecasinosrealmoney.co.nz, but the problem is that they will probably have issues handling your payments. You should only play casinos that know South Africa and have services set up for a great gambling experience.
Responsible Gambling at South African Online Casinos
Responsible Gambling in South Africa is just as important as it is elsewhere. If you think that you or someone you might know suffers from problem gambling, you should check out the National Gaming Board, RecoveryDirect, or the South Africa Responsible Gambling Foundation.
Each of these entities can provide assistance totally free of charge. Note that it is possible to self-exclude oneself from South African online casinos as they have to comply with these requests by law.
