Following the Online Casino Industry
Investigative journalism in the online casino gambling industry has yielded some
pretty interesting results, particularly within the South African market. A
documentary named Carte Blanche was developed by a hard hitting investigative
journalist who wanted some clearer answers about the South African gambling
industry and just why some online casinos are still allowed into the market
despite the fact that internet gambling is still strictly illegal. South Africa
has really made headlines in the past year as the SA Gambling Commission and
various government authorities attempt to sort out the existing regulations and
laws while also developing a solid plan for legalized online gambling in the
market.
The journalist’s documentary specifically takes a close look at one of the more
controversial and well documented instances of questionable activity in the
South African market, the running and advertising for African Palace.com.
African Palace is allegedly run out of the Netherlands Antilles and the online
casino, although illegal in South Africa, ran incredibly large scale marketing
campaigns for quite some time, and the government made no attempts to stop the
advertisements for this site. Fast forward just a bit and the a South African
player has now won a major jackpot from the gaming site – and yet after jumping
through the numerous hoops the gaming site requested, said player has never been
paid in full.
So why is/was African Palace allowed such pervasive access to the South African
online casino gambling market? And when is the government going to either
enforce the gambling ban or regulate gambling? These are questions that,
unfortunately, the documentary poses rather than answers. The internet gambling
industry is just so controversial right now and the South African officials do
not seem keen on taming the industry quite yet. |