As a result of a legal decision, online casinos are now closing their doors to South African customers. Yesterday, Silver Sands Online Casino announced that they will not allow South African citizens to gamble on their website. In their statement, the online casino, which is based in South Africa, said that they have “made the decision to exclude South African players from participating in our games until there is more clarity regarding the legality of gaming in cyberspace for South African citizens.”

Silver Sands is the second South African online casino to make that move. After initially standing in defiance against the legal decision banning online gambling, Piggs Peak online casino, also based in South Africa, announced that they would temporarily stop online gambling in South Africa until their appeal is heard and a decision made.

Though South African customers can no longer play any games on Silver Sands Online Casino, management stresses that the players accounts “will remain accessible” and the players “may request a withdrawal” at any time. A similar statement was released by Piggs Peak, who is still legally operating their brick and mortar casino in the nation.

All of this stems from an August 20 ruling by the North Gauteng High Court that it is illegal to gamble online in the country, a decision that has been praised by the Gauteng Gambling Board but is being appealed by Piggs Peak.

By sheer coincidence, outlawing online gambling in South Africa would eliminate the only competition for the GGB, who runs all gambling operations in the nation. I’m sure that had nothing to do with the ruling, though.

You can only keep Americans in the dark for so long. Sure, you can fool us with propaganda and lies for a while, but Americans are resourceful people with access to a wealth of information from the internet, newspapers, online blogs (*ahem*), talk radio, Youtube, and more.

For that reason, only 6% of Americans still believe that President Obama’s “stimulus” bill has helped the economy. Only 19% of Americans believe that Bigfoot exists and only 6% of Americans believe that the moon landing was faked. People are resourceful and they eventually figure things out.

What about online gambling? Despite campaigning by the Department of Justice and other groups to convince people otherwise, there is no federal ban on online gambling. Neither the Wire Act nor the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) bans online gambling, with the exception of sports betting.

Until recently, however, the common belief among Americans was that online gambling in any form was illegal. The number people who feel that way, though, is dropping. In 2007, it was as low as 41% and earlier this year it was only 37%, according to a survey by Canadian group Ipsos Reid.

So what does this mean? It means that people are waking up and learning about their rights. They are learning what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do. Americans don’t like the government or anyone else telling them what to do and by educating themselves, they are empowering themselves.

The same survey shows that 55% of Americans would like a federal regulation of online casinos to ensure their safety while 45% would prefer the regulation be done by each individual state.