While some will be watching this week's election results trickle in from the Electoral Commission of South Africa IEC with fingers crossed that their party wins big, others will be holding their breath for a big payday As South Africa prepares to head to the polls on Wednesday licensed bookmakers and online betting platforms will see high rollers betting big money on the results of the country's seventh democratic general election. However, instead of only betting on which party will get the most votes, punters are also hopping onto betting platforms to play the odds on other aspects of the elections, including who will be elected as president by parliament, the ANC's percentage of the vote, and even how soon after polling loadshedding will return.

National Gambling Board NGB chief compliance officer Nkoatse Mashamaite said that in terms of section 4 of the National Gambling Act, South Africanlicensed bookmakers are allowed to accept a stake in money or anything of value on a fixed odds bet or open bet from any person on a contingency. "The same act defines a contingency as an event or an occurrence of which the outcome is uncertain or unknown to any person until it happens. An election result or outcome is possibly within the definition of a contingency as outlined above," Mashamaite said. He said licensed bookmakers have licence conditions in line with the National Gambling Act and the respective provincial legislation to adhere to when offering bets to members of the public. "This is to ensure that there is fairness to the public." In recent years, licensed bookmakers and online sports betting platforms have increased their offerings, allowing users to bet not just on game results, but on the odds of a gamerelated event occurring, such as a specific soccer player scoring at least one goal during the game in question.

Mashamaite said the act outlines the process of licensing for betting operators and their code of practice, which can be sanctioned if flouted. "If the activity was not permitted, the licensed betting operators will face sanctions in line with their licence conditions in terms of the conditions set by the relevant provincial board." He said unlicensed operators can be arrested and charged, with the possibility of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or a fine not exceeding R10m, or both a fine and imprisonment. "The NGB was not aware that there was interest in accepting bets on the outcome of the general elections until these questions were brought to our attention. We will liaise with the provincial licensing authorities boards to exercise vigilance to ensure that there is compliance with the license conditions when these bets are taken." While the NGB said it was not aware of bets being accepted on the outcomes of the elections, online platforms are already getting into the business of betting on the polls. Sunbet has launched a fun platform where people can place small wagers on the elections.

Major bookmaker Sportingbet has taken bets on elections in the US, music and film award ceremonies, and the selection of the Pope at the Vatican, as well as other political and nonsporting events. Another online platform, Playbets, has the upcoming US presidential election in November and who will be the prime minister of the UK after elections in July as betting events on its website. Sunbet COO Gideon Mann said that election betting has grown in popularity around the world.

However, he said Sunbet would operate in the space responsibly with a limit to the individual bets that can be made by users. "Many bookmakers globally are prepared to take very large bets, but we have limited individual bets because we are more interested in seeing the responses to election outcomes and interest by the public in this sort of entertainment than trying to drive betting volumes." Mann said the 2020 US presidential election that pitted Donald Trump against Joe Biden attracted the most bets of all time, with "well over a billion US dollars" placed on the outcome globally. Platforms allowing electionrelated bets generally regard the bets closed once parliament officially confirms the results. The Sunday Times sent the IEC requests for comment on how it views the practice of betting on the election, but no response was received. National Gambling Board chief compliance officer Nkoatse Mashamaite