Gambling was heavily restricted in South Africa for a very long time, and only in the last few decades have these restrictions begun to be steadily lifted. In the early 1990s illegal casinos were rife across the country and it was estimated that there were as many as 2,000 of these by 1994.
1994 was the year that it all changed for South Africa, and not just as far as gambling was concerned. This was the year that the democratic party came to power, bringing some much needed and welcomed changes to the country. One of the biggest law changes that they made was to legalize all forms of gambling, turning South Africa from a place where gambling was restricted, into one where all forms of gambling were legal overnight.
Of course, these were the years before online gambling became so pronounced, but when this new wave of casino gambling hit South Africa it was welcomed with open arms. These days online gambling is hugely popular here, which is perhaps no surprise when you consider that a 2006 poll suggested that as many as 3 in 10 South Africans used slot machines on a regular basis, and that close to 97% of them played the lottery.
This is a country that clearly knows its gambling. So where do South Africans flock to get their online gambling fix?
Silver Oak Casino
Silver Oak Casino is based in Costa Rica and is best known for being one of the most popular online casinos for US players. It makes use of a loop hole to offer online gambling to US players, but it needs no such loop hole to offer the same service to South Africans. That is part of the reason why Silver Oak Casino has flourished here in recent months, quickly becoming one of the most popular casinos for South African gamblers, but there are many other reasons as well, as we shall discover.
The Games
Silver Oak Casino uses the Realtime Gaming software, which has been finding its way onto the industry’s most popular online casinos since it was first developed in 1998. One of the key features of this software is the variety of table games that it offers, including a number of blackjack variants, along with games of roulette, craps, baccarat and more.
On the Silver Oak Casino site you’ll also find a great deal of slot machines, including a glut of progressive slots that combine to offer jackpots in the hundreds of millions of dollars. These progressive jackpots can be triggered at any time and everyone who takes a spin on a qualifying slot machine will be given a chance. If you look at the “Latest Winners” section on the main page of Silver Oak Casino, you will be able to see for yourself just how life changing these jackpots can be. It is not unusual for players to pickup jackpots of $10 million to $20 million, and there have also been wins in excess of $40 million. We have already established how South Africans love their lotteries, and with these colossal progressive jackpots they will be given a free lottery ticket every time they spin the reels.
The Bonuses and Promotions
There are two welcome bonuses available on the Silver Oak Casino site, and these are very different so you are advised to choose carefully. The lesser of the two bonuses is a no-deposit bonus, where new players can earn up to $100 in free credits without depositing any money. However, there is a significantly better bonus that offers all first-time depositors up to $10,000 in free cash, paid out over the course of their first ten deposits. As these are 100% matched deposit bonuses, it basically means that all of your deposits will be doubled up to $1,000 each time.
If you deposit $100 a time then this means you will earn an extra $1,000 over the course of your first ten deposits, whilst if you deposit $1,000 at a time then you’ll be able to cash in on the complete $10,000.
That’s not where the bonuses end on Silver Oak Casino, as there are many more promotions to take advantage of. These include slot tournaments, happy hours and more. Just click onto the “Promotions” section of the site to checkout all of these, and bear in mind that they are constantly changing, so just because a promotion is available today, doesn’t mean that it will be available tomorrow.
Silver Oak Casino also like to reward loyal players. There is a loyalty scheme that does this steadily, but there are also other ways that loyal players can earn a little extra. One of these is Bankroll Protection, which basically gives you a 10% rebate on your losses, helping you to offset that occasional run of bad luck that we all suffer through from time to time.
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