Economic pressure and the gambling surge in SA — what the numbers really mean

South Africa’s gambling sector has entered a phase of growth unlike anything seen before. What makes this growth unusual is that it contradicts the long-held association between a healthy economy and betting activity.

In the past, gambling tended to grow when people had stable jobs, rising incomes and greater financial security. Today, the opposite is happening. The industry is expanding rapidly at a time when unemployment remains at crisis levels and many households are under serious financial pressure. Instead of reflecting economic confidence, the surge in gambling appears to be happening alongside growing hardship, debt and uncertainty for millions of South Africans.

This pattern, where betting revenues have grown four times since 2021 while formal job opportunities continue to shrink, shows a country increasingly turning to gambling as a way to cope with deep and long-standing economic problems.

The scale of South Africa’s gambling growth is striking when looking at the numbers. During the 2024/25 financial year, total gambling turnover reached R1.5-trillion. This was a sharp increase of 31.3%, up from R1.14-trillion in the previous year.

Even more telling is the rise in gross gambling revenue (GGR), which is the money operators keep after paying out winnings. GGR increased to R75-billion, representing a 26.2% year-on-year rise. This level of growth is significantly higher than the country’s overall economic growth pace, underscoring the rapid expansion of the gambling sector compared to the rest of the economy.

The rise of online betting

The change in the gambling industry’s makeup has been dramatic. Betting now makes up 70% of total gross gambling revenue, amounting to R52.3-billion. This segment has been growing at an annual rate of 44.7% and has overturned a long-standing industry structure. Just 10 years ago, casinos held an 84% market share. Today, that balance has completely shifted. Online betting platforms, which allow people to place bets instantly on their smartphones with very little effort, now account for 85.5% of all betting revenue. These platforms have been the main driver behind a massive 550% increase in online gambling over the past four years.

By contrast, casinos, once the most dominant part of the gambling industry, have been shrinking by about 4.1% annually in recent times as customers shift toward digital platforms. This shift in technology has significantly changed the ease of gambling. What once required a physical visit to a casino is now available on a smartphone, at any time of day or night, with minimum bets as low as R1.

The opposite movement between jobs and gambling is clear and hard to ignore. South Africa’s official unemployment rate has remained above 31% since the period following the pandemic, currently standing at 31.9% as of the third quarter of 2025. The situation is far worse for young people. Youth unemployment, for those aged 15 to 24, is at a devastating 58.5%. Additionally, 34% of young people across the country are classified as NEET, meaning they are not in employment, education or training. Among unemployed young people, 58.7% have never had a job at all, leaving many stuck outside the formal job market with little chance of entry.

Set against this ongoing failure in the job market, betting revenues have risen sharply. During the 2020/21 financial year, at the height of the pandemic, a total of R5.2-billion was wagered on betting. By the 2024/25 financial year, this figure had grown to R52.3-billion, nearly a fourfold increase. This timing is not a coincidence. It points to a bigger change in how households manage money, with gambling increasingly used as a response to the lack of stable employment and income opportunities.

The reasons behind this growth set South Africa apart from more established gambling markets, where betting is typically viewed as a form of entertainment. In South Africa, gambling is increasingly driven by financial need. Data from the National Gambling Board, along with research by the Perpetua investment firm, show that 56% of surveyed bettors openly admit to gambling because they need money.

Gambling as a survival tactic

Among lower-income earners who make between R8,000 and R15,000 a month, between 40% and 41% say they gamble specifically to pay for household expenses or to manage debt. This is an increase from 36% recorded in the previous year, showing that gambling is being used more often as a way to deal with financial pressure rather than for leisure.

This is not gambling for fun or leisure. It is a survival tactic shaped by deep economic exclusion. The South African Responsible Gambling Foundation reports that 35% of people who seek help for gambling problems are unemployed and fully dependent on Sassa social grants, which range between R370 and R390 per month. Students are using their NSFAS education allowances to gamble. Social grant recipients are setting aside portions of money meant for basic survival to place bets on mobile apps. Informal workers are risking borrowed money, hoping for returns that rarely, if ever, come.

Read more: Students wager NSFAS allowances and their futures at online betting sites

The way income is being spent shows just how serious the situation has become. Lower-income households now spend as much as 40% of their gross monthly income on gambling, compared to just 1-2% among higher-income earners. For a household earning R10,000 a month, this means approximately R4,000 is being redirected away from essentials such as food, electricity, water and rent. At a national level, gambling now makes up 1.6% of total household spending. According to Statistics South Africa’s consumer price index, it ranks as the 12th largest household expense in the country, sitting above several basic necessity categories.

The spread of problem gambling has increased significantly over a short period. The rate has risen fivefold, from 6% in 2017 to 31% in 2023. This means that nearly one in every three active gamblers is struggling with a loss of control over their gambling behaviour. At the same time, 65.7% of South African adults now gamble at least once a year, more than double the 30% recorded in 2017. When these figures are combined, they point to roughly two million people in the country who are living with problematic or compulsive gambling behaviour.

Calls for help

The mental health system is under severe strain. Calls for help to the National Responsible Gambling Foundation rose by 623% in a single year, increasing from 140,000 to 1.1 million calls annually. Referrals for treatment also climbed sharply, rising by 55% to 4,166 people in the 2024/25 financial year. The increase is especially alarming among young adults aged 18 to 35. In this group, treatment referrals more than doubled in just one year, jumping from 787 to 1,974. This shows that gambling-related harm is growing fastest among those who are already the most economically vulnerable.

The seriousness of the problem is clear from what helpline callers report. About 40% say they cannot stop gambling without professional help. A further 32% report financial problems that are directly caused by gambling. Legal trouble is reported by 13% of callers. At the same time, 14% say they are also seeking treatment for other mental health conditions. Another 11% report alcohol abuse alongside gambling, while 6% disclose the use of illegal drugs.

Read more: ‘I cried for the first time because of gambling’: A 24-year-old’s struggle with addiction

Taken together, these overlapping problems show that gambling disorder is rarely an isolated issue. Instead, it often reflects deeper psychological distress, including depression, anxiety and a sense of hopelessness. Gambling apps provide short-term relief by triggering brief chemical rewards in the brain, but this effect fades quickly and deepens the underlying harm.

The risk of suicide linked to gambling addiction is especially severe. Worldwide, gambling addiction is associated with one of the highest suicide rates among all behavioural addictions. People struggling with gambling problems have a suicide risk that is about 15 times higher than that of the general population. In South Africa, full and reliable statistics that directly link suicide to gambling are still limited. However, mental health professionals report a deeply worrying trend, noting that suicides connected to gambling problems have tripled since 2020.

Advertising by the gambling industry has increased sharply at the same time that harm is rising. In the 12 months ending March 2025, gambling and sports betting companies spent R2.6-billion on national advertising. This level of spending is higher than that of traditionally big advertisers such as telecommunications companies. Just three operators dominate this spend: Hollywoodbets invested R775-million, Betway spent R342-million, and World Sports Betting spent R140-million. Together, these three companies account for R1.3-billion, which is more than half of the total advertising spend across the entire gambling industry.

This level of marketing saturation has made gambling feel normal in everyday life. Sports sponsorships blur the boundary between watching sport and placing bets. Betting app notifications encourage repeated play and build momentum in gambling behaviour. Influencer marketing is used to attract younger audiences, while social media algorithms push betting content toward financially stressed individuals, particularly during times when their financial situation is most dire.

The industry also openly targets lower-income groups through specific tactics. These include deposit-free bonus offers that make it easier to start gambling, odds designs that create frequent “near-miss” experiences, and fast-moving games that trigger brain reward responses similar to those seen in substance addiction. Push notifications are even timed to arrive when social grants are paid out, increasing the likelihood that limited income is quickly diverted into betting.

A fiscal contradiction

For the South African government, the rapid growth of gambling creates a difficult fiscal contradiction. In the 2024/25 financial year, the sector contributed R5.8-billion in taxes and levies, supporting 33,169 direct jobs, as well as approximately 144,000 indirect jobs. At a time when the economy is struggling with weak tax collection and ongoing pressure on public finances, this source of revenue is politically hard to reduce or limit.

However, this approach to presenting the issue obscures a deeper issue. If R5.8-billion in tax revenue comes from R52.3-billion in betting GGR taken largely from communities facing unemployment rates above 58% among young people and over 31% across the general population, and from households that spend between 10% and 20% of their income on gambling, then the state is, in effect, taxing desperation.

This system allows billions of rand to flow from the poorest households, through betting platforms, and onward to large gambling companies and the National Treasury. Rather than representing real economic value, this is a regressive transfer of wealth that takes from those with the least and is presented as a positive economic contribution.

Legal grey area

The regulatory system exacerbates these problems. South Africa’s gambling laws are based on the National Gambling Act of 2004, which was enacted before smartphones and online betting platforms became widespread. An updated law, the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008, has been stuck in Parliament for more than 16 years. This delay has created a legal grey area. Local gambling operators must follow strict licensing rules, while illegal offshore platforms continue to operate freely. Many of these offshore sites are registered in Curaçao, and at least 90 such platforms have already been identified.

Although the National Gambling Board takes enforcement action, it lacks sufficient resources to effectively police offshore operators. It also lacks a single, unified authority with provincial regulators, leading to fragmented and often ineffective enforcement.

The government has proposed a 20% national tax on online gambling, with the stated aim of raising R10-billion a year and reducing social harm. However, there is a real risk that this approach will encourage more gamblers to turn to unlicensed offshore platforms. This would repeat what happened in the United Kingdom, where high gambling taxes led to a fragmented market and growth in illegal operators. At its core, the main problem remains unchanged. Regulation is still far behind modern technology, aggressive marketing practices, and the growing vulnerability of consumers.

The pandemic served as a turning point that accelerated trends already in motion. During the 2020/21 lockdown period, physical casinos were hit hard and generated only R23.3-billion in gross gambling revenue, a drop of about 50% compared to 2019/20. At the same time, online betting platforms continued operating without interruption and benefited from faster digital adoption. By 2020/21, betting had overtaken casinos as the leading form of gambling in South Africa. This marked a historic shift in the industry, one that has continued to deepen and strengthen in the years since.

This structural change did not reverse once restrictions were lifted. The economic recovery that followed did not bring casinos back to their former dominance. Instead, betting continued to spread at a rapid pace. The gambling habits formed during lockdown, centred on smartphones, easy to repeat, and always available during times of financial stress, have become the everyday norm for millions of people.

A Daily Maverick analysis points to Sweden as a warning example. In 2018, problem gambling resulted in total social costs of €1.42-billion, equivalent to 0.3% of the country’s GDP. This amount was more than double the tax revenue raised from gambling. These costs included direct expenses such as healthcare, counselling, and legal support, which accounted for 13% of the total. Emotional and social harm accounted for 28%, while the largest share, 59%, came from lost productivity and early deaths linked to gambling-related harm.

For South Africa, the risks are even greater. With 8.9 million households depending on Sassa grants and an average household size of three people, following a similar path would lead to gambling-related social costs of more than R75-billion within the next five years. These costs accumulate gradually across various areas, including rising household debt, family breakdown, pressure on mental health services and lost economic productivity. At present, these harms are barely measured and receive no dedicated funding or structured support from the government.

A warning signal

South Africa’s gambling boom should not be seen as a sign of industry success or as free consumer choice based on personal preference. It is a warning signal of deep economic distress. The sector is growing not in spite of unemployment, poverty, and household financial pressure, but because of them. For millions of South Africans who are shut out of the formal job market, betting apps appear to offer the only possible route to financial relief.

In reality, this hope is built on extremely poor odds and almost always results in scarce income being taken from the very people who can least afford to lose it.

The government often cites R5.8-billion in tax revenue, approximately 33,000 jobs, and the industry’s 0.83% contribution to GDP as evidence of its economic benefits. However, these figures hide a much more troubling reality. Each year, close to R1-trillion flows out of poor households, through licensed betting platforms, and into the hands of large corporate operators. This process creates very little real economic value while extracting the maximum possible social and financial cost from those least able to absorb it.

Unless economic policy confronts the deep problems in the labour market, the real structural reasons behind the rise in gambling, changes to regulation and tax rates will only treat the symptoms. Without fixing the failure to create jobs, dignity, and real economic opportunities, the state will continue to manage the consequences of a system that cannot meet the basic needs of its people. DM

Mduduzi Mbiza is a freelance writer based in Pretoria