Official languages: Afrikaans, English
Population: 47,900,000
Currency: South African Rand (ZAR)
Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 10.8771 ZAR
1 GBP = 11.6045 ZAR
1 USD = 7.3386 ZAR
Poker in South Africa
Poker is a big deal in South Africa. The country offers 37 large-scale casinos and poker tables can be found at every one. There is at least one casino in every one of the country's nine provinces, so a poker game is never far away. No dedicated poker rooms are available yet, but this might change as poker in South Africa becomes more and more popular.
The biggest contributing factor to the popularity of South African poker is the tournaments that come through the country. The biggest is probably the All-Africa Poker Championship that stops at the Piggs Peak Casino in Swaziland every year. The 3.5 million Rand (about 260,000 Euro) prize pool attracts a lot of players. South Africa has also produced some great poker players, like Raymond Rahme who finished third in the 2007 WSOP event, earning over $3 million in total.
Online Poker in South Africa
Online poker in South Africa is also popular and is often connected with tournaments. The South African Poker Open, for example, holds online qualifiers and satellite events at Titan Poker, which is an international poker site that sponsors the tournament. Players compete online for the chance to win a place in the live tournament.
All online poker in South Africa is played at foreign internet poker rooms because the South African government does not license companies to offer gambling on the internet from within the country. The government is in the process of regulating and legalizing online gambling, so in the near future South African online poker sites might start to open, but until then, the only places for South African players to play online poker is at foreign websites.
There are 35 South African online poker sites that offer gameplay in Aafrican or English and accept wagers in South African Rand or US Dollars |
