New rules for promotional competitions
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday January 30, 2017 13:40
According to the regulations, operators were supposed to exclude people aged under 21 years from participating in virtual lotteries and gambling activities, which did not seat well with the mobile operators and sms-based lottery providers.
Addressing the media recently, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Authority, Thulisizwe Johnson said that they have finalised drafting the new promotional competition regulations and have given them to the Attorney General for assessment.
“Anybody under the age of 21 is not allowed to gamble even on an online medium, which includes SMS. Advertising gambling must always be directed to age compliant potential gamblers,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that the operators need to fulfill the rules and regulations set by the Authority in order for them to get a license to continue running online competitions. He added that even though the operators will continue using the licenses they have, they are required to get new ones for their promotions and competitions, which should demonstrate how they are going to exclude people under age.
“Operators need to review their act and give us a plan that will show us how they are going to exclude the under aged, that’s when we will grant them permission to run the promotions,” he said.
Johnson added that they are yet to conduct a study to ascertain the actual figure of total number of compulsive gamblers and its associated impacts as internationally, the figure for such gamblers is averaged at five percent of all gamblers.
“As the regulatory authority for the gambling industry, we have already set in motion plans to commission research to broaden public understanding of gambling related harm,” he added.
In April last year, GA became the regulator of the industry taking over from the Casino Control Board. The Authority’s board also approved the overall corporate strategy for the period 2016 to 2020 in December last year that was supported by the North-West Gambling Board of South Africa in the development of the strategy.
The strategy focuses on creating a world-class regulator driven by effective regulatory control and monitoring, robust framework, operational excellence and organisational capability.
In developing sound governance, the Board approved the organisation’s founding policy documents including shareholder compact, various internal governance policies such as financial policies, licensing procedures manuals, legal policies to ensure the maintenance of sound internal controls.