Distribution and platforms: Can we ship through apps and platforms?

The National Gambling Board and the Advertising Regulatory Board signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 September 2026 establishing a shared framework for monitoring gambling advertising across television, radio, billboards and digital, social and influencer channels. A central component of the memorandum is the creation of formal referral mechanisms for public complaints about non-compliant gambling advertising, linking the two bodies' oversight functions for the first time in a structured way. This sits alongside the Advertising Regulatory Board's own proposed amendments to its Gambling Code, which would restrict the portrayal of irresponsible gambling behaviours and gambling as a solution to financial or personal problems, though those amendments remain proposed rather than adopted following a comment period that closed 28 February 2026. For operators distributing gambling advertising into South Africa across any of the named channels, the practical effect is a materially more coordinated and better-resourced complaint-and-referral pipeline between the gambling regulator and the advertising self-regulatory body, even though the underlying content rules for advertising have not yet been finalised.