Bad bets — SA’s gambling scourge needs to be dismantled urgently

Just before South Africa marked National Responsible Gambling Awareness Month last November, the latest National Gambling Board report showed that a staggering R1.5-trillion was wagered in the 2024/25 financial year. This figure eclipses the combined national budgets for health, education and social grants – and the pace of gambling is accelerating.

Part of the figure is comprised of a growing number of students using portions of their National Student Financial Aid Scheme funds to gamble. More than 50% of employed people gamble and increasingly those living on social grants are gambling too.

These statistics, alongside the industry’s own, show that gambling has evolved from a leisure pursuit into a survival tactic in one of the world’s most unequal societies. It underscores how betting has infiltrated everyday life and how economic desperation is fuelling risky behaviour.

For example, in 2023, Cebile Luhlanga, now an anti-gambling activist, worked as an assistant teacher, but an administrative error meant her pay was delayed by three months. A colleague introduced her to Aviator, a popular online casino game. Luhlanga won R3,000. The win made her believe that she could win more, beginning a spiral she describes as “very terrifying, horrific and it nearly destroyed my life”.

Not only did she lose the R3,000, but she also started using – and losing – savings meant for her late sister’s children. This led to a spiral of debt, lies and overwork as she tried to replace the money she lost. Prior to seeking help, Luhlanga estimates that she lost over R300,000 to gambling. Now she speaks out against it.

As online and mobile platforms make it almost effortless to place bet after bet, gambling harms continue to impact a large number of people in addition to gamblers themselves. For instance, people who have a close family member who gambles are more likely to also gamble.

Systemic failures

Luhlanga is not alone in seeking help. In its 2024/25 annual report, the National Gambling Board reported an increase in gambling disorder and treatment referrals. Referrals for treatment among individuals aged 18 to 35 surged from 787 to 2,034 in the past year.

Although gambling operators regularly tell stories of jackpot winners’ lives that were changed overnight, the losses happen quietly, behind closed doors. R75-billion in losses, based on the most recent gross gambling revenue made by operators. That’s not a moral lapse, it’s a systemic failure.

Yet gambling harms continue to be treated as a private vice, but they shouldn’t be. For example, self-exclusion, a legally mandated programme in South Africa, allows people to voluntarily block themselves from casinos, betting sites and apps for a chosen period, and is promoted as a lifeline to those struggling with gambling. International studies, however, raise doubts about how well it truly protects people.

Apart from it depending on people recognising that their gambling is harmful, it also requires awareness that it is an option. And the system is fragmented, requiring that people self-exclude on multiple platforms – which does not necessarily guarantee being removed. In the same way casinos are designed to keep people inside, so too do online gambling operators purposefully use design strategies that produce and amplify the psychological near-miss effect associated with increased gambling.

Invasive marketing

But beyond these limits, gambling platforms have become embedded in everyday life. Buying regular items like electricity and airtime on some banking apps cannot be done without finding gambling operators as preset beneficiaries. Gambling brands have also woven themselves deeply into the country’s sporting and cultural fabric through aggressive marketing that include sponsorships, algorithmic marketing, influencers and billboards. This must change.

Exposure to advertising and sponsorships is linked to an increase in gambling activity, so it is time to limit that exposure, just like limiting exposure to advertising and sponsorship by tobacco companies was key to reducing smoking. Indeed, in the same way gambling operators have adopted the tobacco playbook, public health interventions that have been proven effective to prevent addictive behaviour can once again be used.

Dealing with business interests needs strong regulations and policies. Advertising, including sponsorship of all sporting, cultural and educational activities, must be banned. This is essential alongside bold, visible warnings and enforced spending limits and age restrictions, the restriction of algorithmic advertising and prohibiting the use of celebrities, athletes and minors in promotional campaigns. It will require multisectoral efforts that include the trade and industry, health and social development departments.

Gambling operators must also be kept out of regulatory efforts. In November 2025, gambling giants Hollywoodbets and Betway sponsored the National Responsible Gambling Summit, ostensibly a platform for discussion and deliberation on responsible gambling practices by gambling regulators, but instead used to legitimise gambling operators as policy and regulatory partners.

South Africa must also invest in evidence-based interventions that put public health and wellbeing ahead of profit. As a new year begins, instead of approaching gambling as a private vice, it is urgent to respond to it like the systemic crisis it is. DM

Koketso Moeti has worked at the intersection of governance, communication and people power. She is the founding executive director of amandla.mobi, a movement led by low-income black women shifting power towards a just, equitable South Africa.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.