By Koketso Moeti
The streets of Johannesburg lately turned purple, not due to the Jacaranda timber however due to a 10km race sponsored by Hollywood Bets – a sports activities betting large that has grow to be ubiquitous throughout South Africa.
A number of years in the past, this may not have occurred. Nevertheless, the panorama of playing in South Africa has undergone a major transformation with the expansion of sports activities betting and the arrival of on-line playing. Certainly, the gaming business is among the fastest-expanding sectors within the nation. If the present development continues, playing may take up a bigger share of family budgets and its harms are more likely to improve. This must cease.
In accordance with the Nationwide Playing Board, the playing business generated R59 billion in gross gaming revenues, with R1.1 trillion spent on ‘wagering’ within the yr ending March 2024. The most recent Previous Mutual Financial savings and Funding Monitor 2025 discovered that 52% of working South Africans gamble. The business’s personal findings reportedly present that 70% of these surveyed admitted to playing primarily to complement their revenue, with practically half turning to playing in an try to cowl important month-to-month bills.
That is unsurprising within the present financial local weather, characterised by a value of dwelling disaster, youngsters dying of malnutrition, excessive unemployment ranges and greater than half the nation falling throughout the higher certain poverty line.
Harms being ignored
Whereas some will argue that the business creates employment, and based on the South African Accountable Playing Basis, contributed simply over R4.8 billion in tax income in 2023/24, this could not negate the dangerous impacts of the business.
Because the business earnings, the harms of playing are distributed amongst numerous households and communities. A research in Australia discovered that for each particular person with a playing dysfunction, a mean of six others – often non-gamblers – are affected due to the pressure positioned on monetary safety, household interplay and social exercise. A current Lancet public well being fee on playing report equally discovered that gambling-related harms affected many.
Over and above the social and well being impacts of playing, the business extracts from the South African economic system. And as its affect expands, the dangers to society develop.
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The expansion of the gaming sector in South Africa is intricately linked to the nation’s political previous, as the primary authorized casinos have been positioned within the former homelands. I’m from one among them. What was Bophuthatswana is among the homelands the place on line casino mogul Sol Kerzner had an unique playing rights deal. Certainly, my very own mom labored at Molopo Solar, which was a part of Solar Worldwide based by Kerzner and was the second resort/on line casino advanced in Mmabatho, between 1988 and 1991. She and different adults have been stuffed with warnings about playing, from individuals who have been absent from dwelling, misusing family funds, to those that died by suicide. I used to be by no means certain whether or not these tales have been meant to discourage us youngsters from playing or in the event that they have been actual.
As an grownup, nonetheless, one of many issues that struck me most about casinos is the shortcoming to inform what time of the day it’s and the stimulating lights and sounds in them, giving credence to the tales of my childhood. This was lengthy earlier than I even knew that casinos are actually designed to maintain folks in them.
And this hasn’t modified. East of Johannesburg’s interior metropolis, the place I dwell, the casinos which have popped up right here proceed to stay to this mannequin. The one within the small buying centre my children and I frequent, one finds folks – particularly younger males – wanting worse for put on, stumbling out in any respect hours.
Whereas the variety of casinos in my space and environment grows, general, casinos are on the decline. Bookmakers and on-line playing providers have dethroned casinos because the dominant types of playing in South Africa.
Widespread adverting
Commercials from the main betting and on-line playing websites fill the nation’s cityscapes, spaza outlets and even the airports. The nation’s learners haven’t been spared and have grow to be billboards for these operators, with branded objects frequently donated to colleges.
Massive spending on promoting isn’t the business’s solely tactic. Sports activities sponsorship has grow to be important to playing operators’ aggressive advertising and marketing actions.
Betting and on-line playing firms have grow to be staple sponsors of a variety of sporting occasions in South Africa. Simply final yr, Hollywood Bets introduced its renewal of sponsoring South Africa’s iconic ultramarathon, the Comrades Marathon. Betway sponsors the Springboks – South Africa’s nationwide rugby crew and is presently the title sponsor of the Premier Soccer League, now often called the Betway Premiership.
This isn’t uncommon. Playing has embedded itself into European soccer and has grow to be entrenched in skilled sport internationally. Not solely do these efforts contribute to normalising playing, however additionally they obscure the connection between playing and its harms.
There’s an pressing want for well-researched, evidence-based options to finish this downside. For starters, the South African authorities may decrease playing exercise by proscribing promoting, together with prohibiting sponsorships for groups and associations with sports activities and academic occasions.
Studying from different nations
Studying from different nations can be essential. For instance in 2020, the UK up to date its 2005 Playing Act to higher match the digital period. The primary objectives have been to guard clients by limiting advertising and marketing, setting stake limits and making operators verify purchasers’ affordability extra rigorously. The nation’s Premier League golf equipment will withdraw playing sponsorship from the entrance of their matchday shirts by the tip of the 2025-26 season.
Canada’s Alcohol and Gaming Fee of Ontario in Canada is one other instance. The physique has banned commercials pushed by algorithms that promote playing incentives, bonuses, and credit, with regulators diligently imposing fines for violations. Additionally prohibited is using social media influencers, celebrities, entertainers and athletes, alongside utilizing “people who’re, or seem like, minors to advertise gaming”.
Whereas South Africa’s Division of Commerce, Business and Competitors has issued robust phrases, these have to be given political life, particularly given how sluggish it has been to behave to stop the disaster. The methods employed by the gaming sector aren’t solely normalising detrimental playing practices but in addition exacerbating well-being and well being disparities.
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Koketso Moeti has an extended background in civic activism and has over time labored on the intersection of governance, communication and people-power. In 2025 she was introduced as a Charles F. Kettering World Fellow. She can be an inaugural New Voices Superior Advocacy Fellow; inaugural Keseb democracy fellow; a Mulago Basis Rainer Arnhold fellow; inaugural Collective Motion in Tech fellow; an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Fairness; inaugural Obama Basis fellow and an Aspen New Voices senior fellow. Comply with her on Twitter at @Kmoeti
The views expressed on this opinion piece are these of the authors, who aren’t employed by Well being-e Information. Well being-e Information is dedicated to presenting numerous views to complement public discourse on health-related points.
