Two Countries, Two Very Different Online Poker Rulings

As one country puts laws into place to shut down online gambling and poker, another takes steps to legalise and therefore regulate online poker.

On August the 20th, Judge NB Tuchten handed down a new judgement stating that gambling using digital products would now become illegal in South Africa. This means that if online gambling operators and online players within South Africa continue to operate or play, they will be in direct contravention of the law and face a R10-million fine or 10 years in jail, or both. Seems like they mean business this time! But how will they enforce this? It has proved notoriously difficult for other countries and US states to do so.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Dutch government-sponsored Online Gaming Advisory Committee has realised that the current laws are completely ineffectual with regards to online poker and is now recommending the legalisation of online poker just like sports-betting and lotteries are presently legal and state sponsored. There are a number of reasons for this but one of the stronger ones is that the only viable way to curb online poker if it were to be deemed illegal would be to have ISP providers block sites which would violate current EU fair trade laws. If the Dutch government does take the advice of the Online Gaming Advisory Committee, the laws will be similar to the online poker laws that have been implemented in France recently, where only online poker rooms that were licensed in Holland would be able to provide online gambling to Dutch residents.