The Hawks Against Illegal Online Gambling in South Africa

19 venues were shut down by police officers after a raid targeting services offering illegal online gambling in South Africa’s Northern Cape and North West provinces.

After months of surveillance, South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has successfully shut down 19 illegal online gambling sites in South Africa’s Northern Cape and North West provinces. Hawks chief, Mthandazo Ntlemeza, said that this is “a huge knock to the network of criminal enterprise in both provinces.” According South African gambling news, Ntlemeza promised more operations against illegal internet casinos. He warned operators that they will “soon going to be knocking at their doors unannounced.”

The Hawks to close even more sites offering illegal online gambling in South Africa

Currently, only online sports betting is legal in South Africa and even that is in the hands of a few local operators. In the past few years there were many attempts to legalize online gambling in South Africa, all of them failed. Most recently, in May, 2016, politicians rejected gambling expansion plans, including the legalization of poker and casino games.