The National Assembly recently held a debate on a topic sponsored by Rise Mzansi Member of Parliament Mr Makashule Gana: “South Africa's gambling crisis, evident from recently published official figures, and the need for measures to better regulate the gambling industry to protect South Africans from gambling addiction”.
Mr Gana opened the discussion by referring to a recent report from the National Gambling Board, which revealed a worrying rise in gambling in South Africa and a trend of poor people using their earnings, social grants and even student allowances for gambling and online betting. “Gambling used to be a form of leisure and part time, but not anymore. Today we see many South Africans gambling money they simply cannot afford to lose. Social grant recipients are gambling away the very funds meant to put food on their tables, students are gambling away their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances, risking their education and their dignity,” said Mr Gana.
He also accused the gambling companies of ensuring that they make as much money as possible for themselves by actively restricting wins, regardless of the human suffering that follows. “The human cost of this crisis is staggering. Gambling addiction is not an individual problem, it is a national public health and social crisis. Families a breaking apart, homes are being lost, people are drowning in debt and, most painfully, lives are being lost through suicide,” he suggested.
Mr Gana then proposed urgent reforms to bring accountability and balance to the gambling industry. These include setting limits to prohibit gambling advertisements between 5 am and 10 am. This would allow families to prepare for work and school without being bombarded with gambling advertising. He also proposed that provincial gambling taxes be raised to at least 8% of the gross gambling revenue and for the gambling industry’s contribution to the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation to be increased from the current 0,1% to 1% of gross revenue.
He also wants the government to mandate operators to allocate at least 40% of their marketing budget to promoting responsible gambling. In addition, he called for FICA and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance to be improved for all gamblers and for a ban on gambling using overdraft or credit facilities. No one should gamble with money they do not have, he stated.
“We must also crackdown on illegal gambling operators, especially online platforms that evade regulations and exploit vulnerable South Africans, and impose strict controls on influencer-marketing and sports sponsorship that promote gambling to young people. These reforms are not about prohibition, they are about protection. We cannot sit idle while a trillion-rand industry feeds on the despair of the poor and the hopes of the young. We cannot continue to allow corporate profit to come before public wellbeing,” said Mr Gana.
Umkhonto weSizwe Party Member of the National Assembly, Mr Visvin Reddy commended Mr Gana for sponsoring the debate topic and echoed many of his sentiments. “These apps are designed to keep you losing and the money doesn’t stay here, it flies overseas to foreign service and foreign bank accounts,” he said.
Mr Reddy also welcomed a recent Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that it is illegal for bookmakers to offer casino-style games online and disguise them as sports betting, calling it a victory for justice. “But Parliament must finish the job. We cannot let betting companies find new loopholes, we cannot let online betting continue to destroy families and communities. The courts have spoken and now this House must act,” he added.
He told his National Assembly colleagues that the MKP will introduce a Private Member’s Bill that would levy a tax on all online gambling, which would be ringfenced for education. In addition, he said, “All gambling services must be hosted in South Africa to avoid illicit financial flows. We need to be able to tax, monitor, gambling services. All casino owners must be made public and we need a total ban on casino and gambling advertising, like we did for cigarette advertising when we realised how it was killing our people. If we could protect our people from tobacco, we can protect them from this new addiction – no more advertising addiction as entertainment,” Mr Reddy proposed.
Mr Roger Chance of the Democratic Alliance also welcomed the discussion, saying its timing was perfect as the National Gambling Board has just released its 2024/25 annual report. The report includes a staggering array of statistics signifying an explosive growth of gambling and betting in South Africa. “Accompanying this growth is more sinister trends, which include spending of scarce income, gambling by minors, NSFAS and social grants recipients, a surge in gambling addiction and desperate calls for help by victims and the proliferation of advertising,” he said.
Mr Chance believes better regulation of the gambling industry is essential to protect South Africans from gambling addiction. He also noted with alarm that addiction is only one of the negative consequences of the country’s gambling obsession. “Research reveals that the impact on people’s spending is so significant that it threatens the economy of the country,” he said. He also supported a complete ban on gambling and betting advertising, adding that South Africa will not be the first country to do it.
He also said that the South African government and Parliament “have been asleep at the wheel – the National Gambling Amendment Act has not been implemented and is hopelessly outdated,” he said. He criticised the then Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies of appointing a commission of inquiry into the gambling industry instead of enacting the 2008 legislation. The inquiry led to the drafting of the 2016 national gambling policy, which recommended the continued prohibition of online gambling, notwithstanding the fact that it continued to flourish.
According to Mr Chance, the Supreme Court has revealed the confusion that exists over the types of gambling that are legal in South Africa, which is all the more reason to move to a system where regulation covers all forms of gambling rather than sticking to a system designed 20 years ago.
Mr Sinawo Thambo of the Economic Freedom Fighters likened gambling to corruption, alcohol abuse and substance addiction, which he argued have become a coping mechanism for those who have been failed by the state and a false escape from unemployment, hunger and easy loans. He claimed that university students, who go for six months without NSFAS allowances, use what little money they can find to gamble, while social grant beneficiaries play the lottery with the hopes of winning their way out of poverty.
“This is not leisure; it is a pathology of a broken society. Studies show that the youth and middle-aged spend half of their income on gambling, hoping for a miracle that never comes,” said Mr Thambo.
On gambling adverts on billboards and the media, Mr Thambo questioned how government allowed gambling companies to colonise public spaces and peoples’ imaginations. “All forms of illegal gambling, including private betting syndicates, clandestine casinos and unregulated online platforms must be declared criminal offences with severe penalties for operators.
“While we look for ways to ban advertising, sports sponsorship by gambling companies must be severely restricted, gambling must be removed from our sports in its entirety. Gambling advertising must be prohibited outright. There is no national cohesion when every billboard, every live sports broadcast becomes a recruitment to gambling addiction,” he suggested.
The Inkatha Freedom Party shared the general concern about South Africa’s gambling crisis, with party representative Mr Thokozani Langa echoing previous speakers when he said it is eroding the country’s social fabric. “This is not just an economic issue, it is a social one; it affects families, livelihoods and the very moral compass of our society. The IFP has long maintained that freedom must be matched with responsibility. While the right to entertainment and entrepreneurship must be respected, it must not be at the cost of social collapse,” he said.
Mr Langa believes that if there were more employment opportunities with sustainable remuneration, fewer people would turn to gambling as income or escape. He also called for a comprehensive review of the national gambling policy to align it with the realities of the digital era, including online and crypto-based betting.
While she acknowledged the gambling crisis, Ms Tembalam Xego of the African National Congress dismissed any sentiments suggesting the problem was a result of her party’s failure in governance. “We agree that gambling is a problem across the globe not just in Sout Africa, but the motion by Rise Mzansi is irresponsible. It presents the gambling crisis as a direct result of the ANC-led government regulatory negligence. They forget that it was the ANC government, as early as 1996, that introduced the National Gambling Act aimed at enforcing regulations in the gambling industry, that once operated in the shadows, to protect vulnerable citizens,” she said.
Ms Xego accused Members of Parliament of trying to score cheap political points by mentioning that the ANC government refused to promulgate the National Gambling Act of 2008, which was meant to regulate new forms of gambling, particularly unlicenced, online or offshore gambling and which is fuelling the current gambling crisis in the country.
“The ANC did not promulgate the 2008 amendment Act as its provisions were rapidly outpaced by the evolving gambling industry. Instead of enforcing an outdated amendment of 2008, the ANC recognised the need of the amendment of the amendment act,” she claimed.
Sakhile Mokoena
5 November 2025
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