Chairperson, hon members of this House, compatriots, people of South Africa, we bring to this House the unanimously adopted report of the Gambling Review Commission. May I add that we have been seized for more than two years with issues around the gambling industry, ever since interactive gambling reached our committee in June 2009 and on which we reported as early as June 2010. Since then, and following on the GRC report, the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry and the Subcommittee on Gambling has grappled with the complexity, the concurrent powers of the provinces, the wide reach of gambling, legal and illegal, and the socioeconomic impact on our people, our communities and our country.
Of course, there are also the unintended consequences of gambling, including Internet and on-line gambling. Many of the inequities in the horse-racing industry, arising from the principal Act, are now challenging all of us. This kind of environment is challenging and, certainly, regulating and trying to develop robust and realistic regulatory frameworks and regulation is not easy.
Indeed, as stated in the report, the socioeconomic impact and issues must be addressed and all gambling operations - all of them, including the Internet and on-line gambling operations - must contribute to the socioeconomic development of our country.
Yes, it is important that issues of effective redistribution of funds through agencies such as the Distributive Agencies in the national lotteries are in line with the country's priorities and are not pet projects. Good health is important - I will be the first to say so, having just spent a couple of days in hospital - and encouraging sport across the racial profile can benefit all of us. Certainly, the development of and the critical role that arts and culture can play in any nation, especially one with such a rich diversity woven into one national tapestry, South Africa, is very important.
Though the National Lotteries Act intended that specific sectors, especially the vulnerable, would benefit, the reality is that this has been abused. The committee did try to address this in its recommendations. We believe that the time has come to expand the sector specifics and focus on the deserving and the vulnerable in other areas.
The National Lotteries Act needs to be radically amended and, certainly, it is hoped that given the highly co-operative engagements with the Department of Trade and Industry on gambling, the principal Acts of both the National Gambling Act and the National Lotteries Act will be radically amended soon.
I want to add that the chairperson of the subcommittee led so ably that I thought I should perhaps step down as chairperson of the portfolio committee. Harmonious relations prevailed throughout. May I most sincerely thank him? Thank you very much, hon Ndaba Gcwabaza, and all members of the subcommittee, who actually did the work. What we did was simply to deliberate on that final report, which was the cleanest final report from a subcommittee I have ever seen in this Parliament. [Interjections.] I wish to thank Commissioner Ludin and her team of commissioners for the sound South African review and the report.