Every flashing banner is a trap. Every pop-up promises hope. And for millions, hope is all they have.
The phone buzzes again. Another ad flashes across the screen: “Bet now, win big, your team, your money!”
For 22-year-old Sipho, what began as curiosity became obsession. He siphoned his R350 South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant, meant to buy food and pay bills; then borrowed from friends; then lost yet again. Within weeks, despair replaced hope. His parents, already struggling, could do little to stop it.
This is not an isolated story. It is a pattern repeated across South Africa, where more than 8.9 million households out of 19 million rely on social grants to survive. And the predators know it.
A warning from afar
Sweden offers a sobering example. In 2018, the problem of gambling cost society €1.42-billion, equivalent to 0.3% of GDP, more than double the tax revenue from gambling. In SA the gambling contributed R4.8-billion in taxes but its cost remains unknown. In Sweden, indirect costs such as lost productivity, unemployment, and premature death made up 59% of the total. Emotional and social harm accounted for 28%, while direct costs such as healthcare, debt counselling, legal support, were just 13%.
Mental health consequences are devastating: individuals with gambling disorders face a 15-fold increase in suicide risk. Families are shattered. In Sweden, 18.2% of the population were “concerned significant others”, lives derailed by someone else’s addiction.
Now imagine that in South Africa, a country already struggling with poverty, inequality and high youth unemployment. Here, the stakes are not theoretical. They are deadly.
Gambling preys on hope
Think of the Sassa grant recipient who spends her food money on a gambling app. Or the unemployed young man who bets his small social allowance in the hope of “winning big”. Gambling is not just entertainment, it is preying on survival, turning hope into debt, and dreams into despair.
“Every day that gambling continues unregulated, we stack the odds against the poor.”
A neglected public health crisis
Despite the massive societal costs, prevention and treatment remain almost invisible. In Sweden, only 0.5% of costs were spent on interventions. South Africa invests even less. Meanwhile, the gambling industry thrives, normalising addiction through social media, sports sponsorships and celebrity endorsements.
Contrast this with tobacco or alcohol: society recognises them as public health threats. Gambling, which costs one-third of smoking’s societal burden and one-sixth of alcohol’s, receives far less attention, regulation or funding. And yet, its impact is profound.
A call to action
Regulating gambling advertising is urgent, but it is just the first step. South Africa needs a real, practical plan (hopefully not another grand plan that will gather dust) to protect vulnerable citizens:
- Set deposit and loss limits: Limit how much people can gamble each day and month. Other countries have strict caps across all platforms, South Africa currently has none;
- Monitor risky behaviour: Gambling companies should watch for signs of addiction and step in with warnings, limits or temporary account blocks;
- Protect young adults: Lower deposit limits and block access to high-risk games for people under 25. Sweden reduced harm dramatically this way;
- Curfew for online gambling: Stop deposits and play between midnight and 6 am to prevent late-night gambling, like Finland does;
- Mandatory breaks: Require players to take regular breaks during sessions, especially on fast-paced games such as online casinos;
- Educate early: Run school and community programmes to teach youth and grant recipients about gambling risks before problems start; and
- Track harm and fund support: Create a central system to monitor gambling harm and fund treatment, counselling and community support.
Sipho is still recovering. His mother has had to cover his debts; his younger sister works part-time to help the family survive. They are not alone. Millions of South Africans quietly pay the price for a system that prioritises profit over people.
To put the scale in perspective: in Sweden, R161 per person was spent on prevention, treatment, research and regulation, yet the societal cost of gambling amounted to R2,800 per person. If South Africa were to face a similar trajectory, with 8.9 million households relying on Sassa grants and an average household size of three, the total societal cost of problem gambling could exceed R75 -billion in less than five years’ time, and that is before accounting for the additional burden of lost productivity, mental health crises and family breakdowns. Even a modest per-person investment in prevention and treatment, matching Sweden’s R161, would require nearly R4.3 -billion, a figure South Africa currently does not dedicate to this silent epidemic. DM