Limpopo Gambling Board Final

2.1.2.Law Enforcement

The mandate of the Entity was to investigate and eradicate all forms of illegal gambling activities within the province. The modes of illegal gambling activities in the province included online (interactive) gambling, illegal gambling machines, Fahfee (Mochaina), cards and dice. The Entities and individuals that are offering these types of gambling activities are operating without valid licenses. The Entity continued its active partnership with the South African Police Service (SAPS), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and other government departments, to ensure effective enforcement of gambling legislation in the province. There was a 364% increase in investigations of illegal gambling which was due to the increased reports by members of the public that resulted from public crime awareness campaigns. The Entity continued to work with great effort to ensure that illegal gambling operators were brought to justice. As a result, there was a remarkable 472% increase in arrests made. There was a notable increase of 443 confiscated illegal gambling machines as compared to the 2021/22 Financial Year, which confirmed that the growth of illegal gambling industry continued to escalate. The Entity appointed a Manager in Law Enforcement Business Unit to take over some of the responsibilities of the unit and contribute to the fight against illegal gambling activities in the province. The position also closed the gap between the Inspectors and the Senior Manager of the Business Unit. The Entity appointed inspectors in terms of section 81 of Limpopo Gambling Act, 2013 (Act No. 3 of 2013) with limited powers to address illegal gambling activities in the province. The limited powers granted to Law Enforcement Business Unit Inspectors through section 334 of the Criminal Procedure Act (Act 51 of 1977) remained an impeding factor in terms of arrests that lead to convictions. In most cases, the defence Attorneys challenged the authority of arrests effected by Law Enforcement Business Unit Inspectors and challenged the court to render such arrests invalid. This resulted in the Entity being highly reliant on the South African Police Service (SAPS) in managing unlicensed gambling operations in the province. The Entity proposed amendments to the Limpopo Gambling Act to address some of the current challenges faced by the Unit, in addition, the Business Unit still experienced a challenge on the collection of digital and electronic evidential material for court purposes. To address this challenge, the Business Unit intends employing a relevantly skilled person to assist in the investigate of complex cybercrime activities associated with illegal online gambling.

The tables below outline the summary of achievements per quarter for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 Financial Years.

A total number of 59 and 274 Investigations were conducted during the 2021/22 and 2022/23 Financial Years respectively.

Table 1 – Investigations Year

1st quarter

2nd quarter 3rd quarter

4th quarter

Total

2021/22 2022/23

8

5

10 69

36 55

59

64

86

274

LIMPOPO GAMBLING BOARD 2022/23

51