ONLINE POKER REVIEWS

South African gambling commission officials have travelled to Antigua the see how the online gambling operations work. The government has studied the various aspects of regulations and control measures and have done serious studies on impact and tax benefits. The gambling community has been talking for a long time about the issues in South Africa and how all the deferrals have resulted in a missed opportunity in the sometimes contentious but profitable world of online gambling. Even though it is supposed to be illegal in South Africa to participate in internet gambling millions of people do and enjoy it. Playing in S.A. rands is a limiting choice so many people open a foreign bank account and deposit and play on any one of thousands of web sites offering all sorts of betting action from all over the globe. It is here that an investigative journalist from South African television looked for a story and found a good one. In a scathing documentary called Carte Blanche the producers and reporters went inside the African Palace Online Casino and it’s people to find out why one now well documented winner was not paid in full.

African Palace.com, was reported by the documentary as being licensed in the Netherlands Antilles, with gambling servers in the United Kingdom.The winners suspicions were raised when the casino asked her to open an account in Cyprus to receive her funds. The casino also suggested that the winner not declare where then funds originated. During the scathing television show the casino was less than forthcoming and did not come off appearing co-operative about the situation. The acting CEO of the National Gambling Board, Thebi Moja, who was adamant that online gambling remained illegal in South Africa despite the high profile advertisements for African Palace are televised in the country. Moja did not satisfactorily say why there was inaction against companies advertising online gambling in the country for years. The Carte Blanche program has asked more questions than it answered and unfortunately the online gambling situation in South Africa has some pressing issues.