POLITICALLY AWEH: South Africans wagered R1-trillion last year — but who’s regulating the betting industry?

In case you couldn’t tell from the billboards and athletic sponsorships, online betting is booming. In this video, the team at Politically Aweh asks the question many can’t seem to answer: Who’s actually profiting, and who’s paying for it?

Most of that trillion isn’t coming from your aunty’s bingo halls, but online betting, which now makes up about 60% of the entire gambling market and grew from roughly R10-billion in 2018 to more than R150-billion by 2023.

YearBeyond psychologist Anwar Parker, who works with gambling-affected youth, says this accessibility is part of the problem. As he explains: “It’s in your pocket, it’s on your Android phone, it’s private… you don’t see your cash disappear because it’s all digitally disappearing.”

Host KG Mokgadi points out that gambling options are even found in banking apps now. It’s a casino that never closes, has no bouncer, and now lives in the same app as your savings account.

Another reason for the betting boom, according to Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana , was the government’s own Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant.

“The explosion of online gambling in South Africa coincides with the payment of the Social Relief of Distress Covid-19 grant. So basically, the government funded the explosion of online gambling in South Africa,” Gana says.

A study by the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation found that nearly 45% of grant recipients – including Sassa and National Student Financial Aid Scheme beneficiaries – admitted to gambling with money meant for survival and education.

For one gambler interviewed for the episode, it started before he was even legally allowed to bet.

“I used my brother’s credentials to get an account… there could be 500 [rand in debt] tomorrow, could be a thousand next week, 10,000, and it accumulates. And now you’re in a loop of being a gambling addict.”

A 2026 Old Mutual report found that 42% of working South Africans gamble frequently with the goal of covering expenses or debt. We spoke to economist Johan Fourie, who says the pattern looks less like entertainment and more like a saving strategy; people bet small amounts often, at high odds, hoping to land a lump sum. Of course, this seldom works out that way.

Meanwhile, the industry can’t stop advertising itself. Betting sponsorships greet you at the airport, on the rugby pitch, on billboards the size of trucks, even trailing planes overhead.

The National Gambling Board itself has raised concerns that this advertising blitz breaches the National Gambling Act’s restrictions on ads targeting minors.

The human cost shows up in the call logs. Calls to the National Responsible Gambling Programme’s helpline went from 65,000 in 2022/23, to 140,000 in 2023/24, to over a million in 2024/25.

There’s also a regulatory puzzle here, which investigative outlet amaBhungane has reported on in detail.