South African bookmaker body calls for tougher payment enforcement against illegal offshore gambling

South Africa’s biggest bookmaker trade body says the country does not have a law problem so much as an enforcement problem, and it wants the payments layer squarely in the frame. That matters for PSPs and acquirers because SABA is explicitly pushing for action against payment firms, affiliates and other facilitators servicing illegal platforms.

1. According to data cited by the National Gambling Board (NGB), illegal gambling platforms generated R5trn (£303.8m) in 2025, equal to around 3.75% of the regulated sector’s R75trn for the same year. In other words, this is not a side issue; it is already a measurable slice of the market.
2. The problem is landing on a population with limited room to absorb losses: SABA says 60% of South Africa’s total population, or 39 million people, live below the upper-middle income poverty line. That is why player-protection gaps and weak enforcement have become central to the debate.
3. The South African Bookmakers Association (SABA) has proposed a six-point national strategy for authorities and regulators. The package includes: a clear legal definition of an unlawful operator; more website-blocking powers for regulators; disruption of the payments infrastructure serving illegal platforms; legal action against gambling facilitators such as payment firms and affiliates; tougher scrutiny of promoters such as influencers; and a centralised enforcement framework with coordinated inter-agency action.
4. SABA Chief Executive Officer Sean Coleman said the association has spent months engaging with the NGB, policymakers and other stakeholders on a “practical, evidence-based strategy” to combat the growth of the illegal offshore gambling market. He also argued that South Africa’s framework is “prohibition without enforcement” rather than a lack of laws.

For payment providers, the important line is the one about “disruption of the payments infrastructure.” That is the part regulators can actually operationalise: blocking, monitoring, and pushing liability upstream to the firms that move money, not just the operators taking the bets.