GAMING FOR AFRICA


Gaming For Africa


Casino International’s Africa partner is the excellent Gaming For Africa magazine, bringing you the continent’s latest developments


Supreme Court of Appeal Rules in Tsogo Sun’s Favour over BBBEE


Stringent decisions made by the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board relating to Tsogo Sun casinos operating licenses and its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) framework, have been declared unlawful and invalid. This comes after the Supreme Court of Appeal


upheld an appeal application by the Caledon, Garden Route and Mykonos casinos, which falls under the Tsogo Sun Group in the Western Cape, arguing that new conditions imposed by the board was done “in blanket fashion” instead of doing individual assessments that would apply to each licensee. The conditions required the appellants to


“achieve an overall rating of Level 4 in terms of the Tourism Scorecard” and to submit related documentation to the Board. The conditions imposed by the board required the appellants to achieve and maintain a Level 4 status under the B-BBEE framework. According to court documents, the section


which was declared unlawful and invalid by the SCA, read that the licence holder shall achieve an overall rating of Level 4 in terms of the Tourism Scorecard, and should submit to the Board “3 calendar months before the expiry date of its licence, a BBBEE rating verification certificate which is not older than 12 months, from an accredited institution, along with its renewal application of the relevant licence.” Further conditions under the clause read that


if the licensee failed to achieve compliance level, that it would submit a plan setting out how the required BBBEE compliance level will be achieved, three months before its license expiry date. Also, the licensee should submit a plan, three months before the license expires, setting out its objectives to improve its current BBBEE level and status. The Tsogo group argued that the imposed conditions were unlawful in that the board was not empowered to impose those conditions, and if they were to hold those powers, “the jurisdictional facts for the exercise of that power were not satisfied”, court documents read.


24 AUGUST 2022


Ethiopia Ministry Aims to Ban Sportsbetting


Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women and Social Affairs announced that it is working to get sports betting in Ethiopia banned, but a tighter control on access to retail sites may provide a middle ground for those aware of the tax benefits sportsbetting brings, and those who oppose it on social grounds.In a knee-jerk reaction to the country’s relatively recent introduction and succesful growth of sportsbetting, Abebe Haimanot, a representative of the Ministry’s Youth Personnel Development Directorate, told state media that works were underway to get sportsbetting banned taking into consideration the issue of youth and youth personality development as well as various economic and social crises the sector is causing. He said that though various discussion forums


“The Board’s decision to impose the Level 4 conditions involved an unlawful ‘one size fits all’ industry-wide condition, without regard to the specific circumstances of the appellants. As a result, the discretion of the Board had been fettered by rigidity…the Board’s decision was unreasonable,” Tsogo Sun averred. In the judgment, SCA Judge Trevor Govern,


said: “There is no dispute that decisions of the Board amount to administrative action under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA). This means that such decisions are susceptible of review under both PAJA and the principle of legality. As to the latter, it is trite that the Board, being a statutory body, is limited to the powers accorded to it in legislation. If an entity exceeds the powers accorded it in making a decision, the decision is unlawful. It has no power to make the decision and such decision would be ultra vires (beyond its powers)... “Sadly, the Board appears to have elevated


what is really a policy into an immutable rule which it applied indiscriminately to all licence holders regardless of their circumstances,” said Govern.


(Source: Cape Times)


and movements have been organized to push for an end of sportsbetting, due to various reasons, such forums are not being adequately conducted. Abebe further said that based on a series of surveys conducted by the ministry, sports betting is identified as posing a risk to young people.The Ministry had started classifying sports betting as gambling, the official said. At the start of year the Ministry had led calls for the government to impose a ban on sports betting. They were ultimately thwarted by local betting operators who argued that “betting is not gambling”. “We are receiving a lot of negative comments


from the community about sports betting. But that is not true. We are legally licensed by the National Lottery and we are also obeying our social responsibility,” Vegas Sport Betting Executive Director, Yonas G. Alemu told local media. The Ministry has suggested that the addition of


procedural rules be enacted or betting be banned outright.”Despite enforcing new rules on licensing and tax in 2020, the Ministry claimed that gambling regulator National Lottery Administration (NLA) did not have the resources to police Ethiopia’s betting shops. Legislative changes in 2020, saw the NLA ordered to separate sportsbetting from lottery licensing, as betting firms were ordered to secure individual licences. The NLA responded to criticism of its inaction, stating that it had achieved its policy objectives of licensing Ethiopian bookmakers and ensuring that operators pay a 15% tax on monthly winnings and a 0.5% contribution allocated towards social welfare contributions.


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