Question:
You allege that it is illegal to bring winnings from an overseas lottery into South Africa.

I have spoken to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and they have assured me that it is not illegal and depositing any winnings does not have tax implications. Investing your winnings, however, will.

Answer:
If you have a PC and access to the internet chances are you have seen many advertisements for gambling online and overseas lottery tickets.

According to a spokesperson for the National Gambling Board it is illegal to play the lottery in foreign countries because by doing so you will be contravening the South African Reserve Bank’s exchange control laws. You are also not permitted to participate in sweepstakes or betting of any sort.

The only way to legally buy overseas lottery tickets is if you register to do so and you can only do this after you have applied for exchange control.

Overseas online gambling is also illegal under the National Gambling Act. If a person gambles online unlawfully and they use their credit or debit cards, the Reserve Bank can request to have their access to credit cards withdrawn.

If you are in a foreign country on vacation you can legally buy a lottery ticket.

If a person registers unlawfully from South Africa and wins, the lottery company would usually open a bank account in that person’s name. A large sum of money being deposited into the account would almost certainly force the bank to report the deposit to the Financial Intelligence Centre (the organization responsible for the prevention of money laundering, amongst other things). If a winner was in contravention of exchange controls then they would in all likelihood have to forfeit the winnings.

Question:
In your article ‘Fat chance!’ you say that playing foreign lotteries from South Africa is illegal. How come at the top of your page there is an advertisement for African Palace Casino and News24 offers on their site direct access to the ‘UK Lottery’ and ‘Euro Millions’?

Answer:
Yes, you are correct. It would seem that while the Gambling Regulators and the Reserve Bank outlaw the purchase of UK lottery tickets from South African shores, they do not take action against the advertising of such products. It is not dissimilar to many of the regulatory bodies in South Africa that are set up with good intentions but when it comes to implementing the law or rules they are damp squibs.

What more can I say?