Gambling bodies move to deny student loan and social grant beneficiaries access to gambling

Following Daily Maverick’s reporting that revealed that some tertiary education students are deep into online gambling and are using their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowance to fund their online betting accounts, and other reports of government grants used to gamble, the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation and the SA Bookmakers’ Association are now working on a strategy to put measures in place to safeguard South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and NSFAS beneficiaries from gambling with their grants.

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

Daily Maverick spoke to Responsible Gambling Foundation Executive Director Sibongile Simelane-Quntana, and Bookmakers’ Association Chief Executive Officer Sean Coleman, who said that the strategy aimed to deny access and account creation to individuals who were found to be recipients of the Sassa grant and NSFAS allowance. However, they acknowledged that they could not control customer behaviour, and said that neither did they wish to.

According to Coleman, the conversation about NSFAS and Sassa grant strategies started on 31 October 2025. He said the move would not be a ban, but an “account customer guardrail”. Simelane-Quntana said that both Sassa and NSFAS recipients were vulnerable groups who may be more susceptible to targeted gambling advertising, financial hardship, and the potential negative consequences of gambling losses.

The frequent advertising of gambling and the lack of proper regulations to address online gambling had seen many individuals fall into the trap of opening accounts and betting online.

The strategy

The key departments required for this were the social development (Sassa) and higher education and training (NSFAS).

Explaining the strategy to limit access to gambling, Simelane-Quntana said the proposed approach centred on establishing an initial “account customer guardrail” designed to protect vulnerable groups, specifically NSFAS and Sassa recipients, from gambling-related harm.

“The foundation would serve as the legally authorised custodian of a consolidated database containing information on NSFAS and Sassa grant recipients. As an initial measure, this centralised approach could begin with individuals who are already registered within the foundation’s database, specifically those currently receiving treatment for gambling-related harm,” said Simelane-Quntana.

“This designation would ensure that all data handling is conducted in strict compliance with relevant privacy and data protection legislation, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia)… For this process to be successful, we need the involvement and participation of licensed operators; as such, we are proposing that Verification and Proportionate Action be done by licensed operators who are better placed and able to verify prospective or current account holders against the protected database, either through manual review or secure API connections.

“If a customer is identified as a grant or allowance recipient, the prescribed action consistent with the principle of proportionality and necessity would be to deny account creation or access, thereby preventing potential misuse of essential funds intended for social welfare or education,” said Simelane-Quntana.

Protection of Personal Information Act

Both Coleman and Simelane-Quntana said that there might be a hurdle in this strategy, which was the issue of the Popia. Simelane-Simelane-Quntana said that this presented a significant challenge when it came to accessing and utilising personal information about whether individuals were Sassa or NSFAS recipients.

However, both SA Responsible Gambling Foundation and SA Bookmakers’ Association explained to Daily Maverick that to navigate this issue, “the foundation would seek explicit, informed consent from individuals before processing or sharing their information for the purpose of gambling exclusion… only licensed gambling operators, under tightly controlled conditions, would be permitted to verify customer eligibility against the database… the foundation and SA Bookmakers’ Association would continue to work closely with relevant government departments, regulatory bodies and legal advisers to develop protocols that align with Popia requirements,” said Simelane-Quntana.

NSFAS support

When Daily Maverick spoke to the Acting CEO of NSFAS, Waseem Carrim, he said that he supported the call to prevent students from using their allowance for gambling.

“Yes, we would work with any key stakeholder players in managing destructive behaviours [of gambling with an allowance],” said Carrim.

Daily Maverick asked Carrim whether NSFAS would consider using the old method of providing students with a voucher card to buy groceries and school materials instead of cash. He replied: “NSFAS is exploring a range of options to manage student disbursements in the context of a number of challenges that it faces.”

At this stage, NSFAS does not have a track record of how students spend their money.

Sassa supports attempts — to a point

Sassa spokesperson Andile Tshona told Daily Maverick: “This could be gambling, alcoholism, substance abuse and others... Sassa supports any attempt to fight social ills affecting South Africans, especially our beneficiaries.”

Tshona said they educated beneficiaries about the responsible use of social grant money.

“However, we do not prescribe to our beneficiaries what they should use the money for. It should be noted that our role as Sassa is that of distributing social grants to eligible beneficiaries only; when the money gets into the account of a beneficiary, it is entirely up to them to use it the way they see fit. The responsibility to fight social ills in our society lies with everyone, not only Sassa,” said Tshona.

He added that they had not yet been approached by the SA Bookmakers’ Association on the issue.

“And we are not aware if they have approached our mother body, the Department of Social Development, either. We will deal with the issue once we receive that communication,” said Tshona.

Advertising and influencers

Throughout the year, there have been many calls to put regulations in place for the frequent advertising of gambling and the use of influencers. In a parliamentary reply to Rise Mzansi’s Makashule Gana, Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau highlighted contraventions, including targeted digital formats like pop-up ads, sponsored content, influencer campaigns and algorithm-driven videos.

Read more: Gambling’s old guard wants to curb SA’s online enthusiasm

“These methods often lacked appropriate responsible gambling messaging and were accessible to minors, thereby breaching provisions regarding the protection of vulnerable persons and responsible gambling communication. The matter is being escalated to the National Gambling Policy Council for deliberation and resolution,” said Tau.

South Africa’s 2004 National Gambling Act is seen as outdated, predating online gambling and smartphones. Proposed regulations in 2012 to ban online gambling advertising, similar to partial bans in countries like Kenya, were not implemented.

The SA Responsible Gambling Foundation has engaged extensively with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to provide expert input and to advocate for more regulatory controls.

“These engagements have centred on the public’s mounting concerns and frustrations regarding the sheer volume and nature of gambling adverts, especially those that leverage well-known public figures to entice participation… The foundation is also collaborating closely with the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB). This partnership has resulted in the development of a comprehensive draft set of advertising standards specifically targeting the regulation of gambling advertising,” said Simelane-Quntana.

Daily Maverick sent questions to Department of Trade, Industry and Competition spokesperson Kaamil Alli on what the department has done to counter the issue of advertising and use of influencers who tempt people to bet on gambling sites. However, no response had been received by the time of publication.

Daily Maverick was referred to Sassa after asking Department of Social Development spokesperson Sandy Godlwana whether the department was aware that some of its grant recipients were gambling with their Sassa grants, and whether campaigns to warn or educate Sassa recipients not to use their money for gambling were being conducted.

Following the recent flighting of an advertisement for responsible gambling by Hollywoodbets that was played on radio stations, the company’s public relations manager, Kuhle Mkize, told Daily Maverick that they continued to invest in the National Responsible Gambling Programme, a programme managed by the SA Responsible Gambling Foundation.

“We continue to increase our investment in this programme through social media, advertising campaigns (such as the one currently running on several radio stations, including 702), internal team training, and direct contributions to the SA Responsible Gambling Foundation by assuming the costs of several counsellors employed by the foundation,” said Mkhize.

Read more: Odds are National Treasury’s proposed 20% online gambling tax will fuel illegal operators.

As a means of adding further regulations and a clampdown on the gambling industry, on Tuesday, 2 December 2025, the National Treasury released a draft proposal, calling for a 20% national tax on the gross gambling revenue of all licensed and unlicensed online gambling activities, which it believes could add up to R10-billion to the fiscus. DM