Today, the big money special interests lost and the people of Massachusetts won. Members of the House withstood incredible pressure from the deep‐pocketed gambling industry, unions and the Governor’s office.

This is the third consecutive session in which the House has overwhelmingly voted to reject the harmful expansion of gaming in the Commonwealth. The cost of creating a casino culture is too high. There are far better ways to create jobs and increase revenue The House has repeatedly pursued initiatives that spur our economy through life sciences, clean energy and other industries that far better utilize our strengths. Massachusetts has always been known for its brain power, innovation and technical expertise.

Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York all have casinos and they all have higher taxes than Massachusetts. Pennsylvania allowed slots to give property tax relief and, now, their governor is proposing a major sales tax increase.

This issue has dominated the debate here at the State House for more than six months. The Legislature had three public hearings, including a 13‐hour session this week, and proponents and opponents debated for more than six hours on the floor today before voting.

The debate on casino gambling is over. We will move on and the House will continue to work collaboratively with the Governor and the Senate to grow our economy in meaningful ways.

When online gambling becomes legal in SA, the providers of such services and Internet service providers may apply for licenses.

“The new law will enable people to license Internet gambling, and South African citizens will be able to operate within a protected environment,” said Marasha.

Evelyn Masotja, the director for regulated industries at the trade and industry department, said that currently, Internet gambling was prohibited in SA in terms of the National Gambling Act, Act 7 of 2004.

“The gambling law does have penalties for contraventions,” he warned.

Under the Act, the penalty for anyone convicted of an offense is a fine of up to R10-million or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years — or he or she could face both a fine and imprisonment.

Masotja said the intention behind wanting to regulate the online gambling environment was to protect consumers, not to punish them — and to put proper control and monitoring systems in place.

“Players involved in interactive gambling currently play at their own risk and there’s no regulatory environment to protect them,” he said.

Marasha said the local jurisdiction would allow Internet gambling if operators met the requirements of South African national technical standards.

Internet gaming options on offer overseas include casino-type games, slot machines, lotteries, sports betting, race wagering, bingo, person-to-person betting (such as poker) and blackjack.

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