"Sent" but not in your account: how SA bank clearing affects casino payouts

Three rails, three speeds

Every rand payout from a South African bank account travels on one of a few interbank rails. The operator, or the payment company it uses, chooses the rail. You do not, and the cashier rarely tells you which one was used. Knowing the options explains most "it says sent" puzzles.

Ordinary EFT credit. The traditional batch payment. Banks exchange these in processing runs, so a payment captured during the day is settled with the other bank later and credited to you afterwards. The South African Reserve Bank's 2020 faster payments consultation paper describes it as the service most consumers default to, resulting in delayed transfers "usually in a matter of days".

RTC (real-time clearing). The same paper defines an RTC transaction as an interbank credit where payment should be effected for the credit of the payee account within 60 seconds. It launched in 2006, but the paper notes it was offered as a premium service, cost much more than a standard EFT, was not available 24/7 because of cut-off times, and that not every bank offering EFT participated. Banks market it under their own names, such as "instant pay" or "pay and clear now".

PayShap. The newer real-time rail, which lets payments be sent to a bank account or a ShapID. Its per-transaction limit was raised from R3,000 to R50,000 in October 2024, according to an industry analysis by Electrum, which also points out that this is still far below RTC's R5,000,000 maximum. Each bank decides when to switch on the higher limit for its customers.

Times by rail

The table pulls together what two major banks publish. Times are when the money is available to the recipient, not when the operator pressed send.

The FNB figures come from its payment cut-off times guide, which is written for business banking clients, the kind of account an operator or payment agent pays from. The Nedbank figures come from its EFT processing times page. Both banks note that some receiving banks may make funds available sooner.

Cut-off times decide the day

A payment does not travel the moment it is authorised. Each bank has cut-offs, and anything authorised after them is processed in the next run. FNB's business guide lists, for same-day payments to other banks, a cut-off of 16h45 on weekdays and 10h15 on Saturdays, and says payments submitted after the cut-off are processed on the next business day. Its Pay & Clear Now service to participating banks closes at 16h00 on weekdays and 10h00 on Saturdays. FNB recommends submitting at least 30 minutes ahead of a cut-off.

Here is how that plays out for a payout sent by ordinary EFT from one bank to an account at another:

• Tuesday, 11:00: before the cut-off, processed that day, usually available Wednesday.
• Tuesday, 17:30: after the cut-off, processed Wednesday, usually available Thursday.
• Saturday, 09:00: before FNB's Saturday cut-off; Nedbank's table shows a Saturday payment before 9:30 to another bank received on Monday.
• Saturday afternoon or Sunday: Nedbank's table shows Tuesday.

The same R2,500 payout can therefore arrive in one day or in three, without anyone making a mistake.

Public holidays stretch the gap

Public holidays are not business days, so ordinary EFTs do not settle on them. The government's public holidays page on gov.za notes that under the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994, when a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is a public holiday too. That turns some weekends into three-day gaps. Nedbank's table shows that a payment to another bank made on the day before, or on, a public holiday after 16:00 reflects in two days, on the next working day. Clusters of holidays around Easter and in December are when "sent" and "received" drift furthest apart.

"The casino says sent, but it is not there"

Work through it in this order before you assume the worst:

1. Get the date and time it was sent. Compare it with the cut-offs above. A Friday-evening send by ordinary EFT is not late on Monday morning.
2. Ask for proof of payment. A legitimate payer can give you a payment reference or a proof-of-payment document showing the amount, date, destination bank and the last digits of the account.
3. Check the account details on it. If a digit is wrong, only the sender and its bank can trace or recall the payment, so raise it with the operator first.
4. Search your statement for the reference, not the brand. Payouts may arrive under the name of a payment agent rather than the casino or bookmaker name you know.
5. Then ask your bank. With a reference and date, your bank can tell you whether an incoming credit has been received or is held for checks.

If the operator cannot produce a reference, the money most likely has not been sent at all, and you are back at the review stage described in our guide to what a pending withdrawal means.

What you can control

You cannot pick the rail, but you can pick the method. E-wallets and some bank-transfer routes avoid interbank batches entirely; see our overview of casino payment methods for what each one involves. Requesting on a weekday morning, not on Friday evening or before a long weekend, gives an EFT the best chance of arriving the next day. Keep every reference and screenshot until the money is in your account.

Bear in mind who is sending. A provincially licensed bookmaker pays from a South African bank account. An offshore casino site, which is outside South African licensing, may pay through an agent or from abroad, which can add the international delays shown in the table and leaves you fewer places to complain if a payment never arrives.