South Africa‘s National Treasury has extended its consultation ahead of the planned implementation of a nationwide remote gambling tax.
The proposals, announced in November, call for a 20% tax rate on gross gambling revenue from online activity, to sit alongside current provincial tax rates of between 6% and 9%.
Initially, the treasury had required responses from stakeholders to be submitted before 30 January, however, the consultation has now been extended until 27 February.
According to South African authorities, the decision to put forward the proposals has been taken in light of the significant rise in remote gambling witnessed in South Africa, and the potential social harms as a result.
The proposal stated: “Advances in technology have made online gambling more accessible, changing how people gamble and increasing the variety of gambling products available, which gamblers can now access from anywhere, at any time. It transcends the provincial boundaries and cannot be realistically and fully administered at a provincial level.
“From a public policy perspective, there should be no problem with recreational gamblers as they do not place any external costs on society. However, to the extent that problem and pathological gambling impose a cost on society (externalities), it is in the public interest that such behaviour be regulated or reduced.”
Though online sports betting has grown rapidly, iGaming remains unregulated in South Africa, despite an amendment to the National Gambling Act being passed in 2008, which was intended to legalise the online casino vertical.
However, the introduction of a remote gambling tax may be the catalyst needed to reopen these discussions and provide the push needed to push through iGaming reform.