Information about best South African casinos
Online gambling is still a pretty new concept in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela's new government brought democracy with it in 1994, it also legalized all forms of gambling across the country. The National Gambling Act published two years later was the official seal of this and forms the basis of the South African betting industry that we know today.
Yet, online gambling is a different matter. With the National Gambling Act (2004) outlawing casino games, following the amendment in 2008 making some exceptions, the interactive landscape is slightly murkier.
So, how does this affect players like you? Is it possible to find great online casinos for South African players? This page will answer these questions for you and more as Casino Guru covers all the important information you should know about online casinos for South African players, including a history of online gambling in SA.
Table of contents:
Online gambling in South Africa: a legal history recap
If we want to get to the start of online gambling as a legal concept in South Africa, we have to turn the clocks back to the early 2000s. In 2004, the government passed the National Gambling Act, but it wasn't good news for online casino fans. That's because the bill outlawed interactive online casino games, including poker and bingo, for both operators and players. Online sports and horse race betting, though, was permitted for licensed businesses.
An amendment to the original act, which attempted to legalize all forms of online gambling and pave the way for a regulated industry, was blocked, resulting in a watered-down version passing in 2008. This permitted online sports betting and virtual lottery, as long as they were via licensed operators.
The result of this was a largely unregulated market that is still the case today. Simply put, players can still access offshore casinos without a realistic fear of punishment. Domestic online casinos are prohibited, but that doesn't stop unlicensed sites from offering their games to players.
An unregulated market is dangerous for players and also means the government misses out on potential taxes and fees from licensed operators. This reasoning led the country's Democratic Alliance (DA) to propose a Remote Gambling Bill in 2022. It attempted to introduce an updated licensing system for interactive operators but, at the time of writing, this bill still hasn't been approved.
This means that players in South Africa have a shortage of reliable domestic casinos to choose from, forcing them to seek foreign sites instead. Luckily, there are some good alternatives out there.
The next section will show you how you can track down these online casinos by using our special rating, review, and filter system, which is designed to point you in the direction of the best playing experience possible.
How to choose the best online casino in South Africa for you
While no domestic SA online casinos are licensed to offer casino games to players, there are still numerous offshore sites that players from South Africa can access today.
On this page, you'll see a full list of available online casinos which you can click on to find out more about. However, to do that with each and every option would take all day.
The good news is that Casino Guru has done the hard work for you. Our team of experts has assessed each casino's pros and cons and awarded it a unique rating, comprised of the following factors (and more):
- The casino's revenue (the higher it is, the more likely it will pay out big wins)
- The fairness of its terms and conditions
- How many complaints the casino has received in relation to its size
- The casino's safe gambling tools
To see the sites that score the highest ratings, just make sure the 'Recommended' tab is selected above the list. These are the very best casinos available to SA players, and are most likely to give you a good time.
If new South Africa casinos are more your bag, then you can always click on the 'Newly Opened' tab which could give you some interesting welcoming deals. Beware, though, these sites aren't as established as others, so remain a bit of an unknown quantity.
To go back to the full list of casinos, just click 'All'. You can also use our filters to make the list smaller and hone in on the sites you're most interested in.
Narrow down your search with our filters
Scrolling down the filter list and clicking 'Mobile-friendly casinos', for example, will present you with just those SA casinos that allow you to play from a mobile device. Further down, the 'Casino Games' section lets you tick the boxes of your preferred casino games, from roulette to keno, while 'Payment Method' has all the different cards and wallets to choose from: ticking the EcoPayz box, for instance, will isolate just those casinos that accept that payment method.
Other filters include 'Withdrawal limit' where you can adjust a toggle between low, medium, and high withdrawal amounts, and 'Currency' where you can narrow the list down to just sites that accept the Rand or any other types of coins, including cryptocurrencies.
The aim is for you to end up with a specially curated list of casinos that all have your preferred features. To get a more in-depth look at the casino search process, check out our How to choose an online casino guide, which has everything you need to know to become an expert on the topic.
South Africa online casino bonuses
One of the main differences between real-life casinos and their virtual equivalents is the latter's tendency to offer online casino bonuses to new and existing players. When used in the right way, they can be a great way to get to know a casino and its games.
The two types you're most likely to come across are deposit bonuses and no deposit bonuses. Deposit bonuses are prepaid spins or credit you get after you transfer money into your casino account. No deposit bonuses, on the other hand, are typically smaller amounts of the same thing, but you can get these just by signing up at a casino.
The best place to find bonuses for South Africa players is our list of online casino bonuses where you can use filters there to find the best one for you, including 'Recommended', 'Latest', and 'Exclusive'. The latter shows you special bonuses on offer to Casino Guru visitors only: you can find out how to claim these by clicking on their information boxes and following the instructions.
Here are some more bonus filters that will help you narrow down your choices further.
- Bonus value - lets you toggle between three different values, in terms of currency value, free spins, and % bonus value
- Wagering requirements (WR) - has the option of WR in terms of bonus, bonus + deposit, cashback, or deposit
- Bonus type - reload and cashback bonuses are here, as well as the two we've mentioned.
If you'd like to know more about online casino bonuses, then our special guide will take you through every aspect of these special offers.