{"id":641081,"date":"2026-04-18T07:07:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=641081"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:10:30","slug":"rapidly-growing-online-activity-devastating-households-across-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/641081-rapidly-growing-online-activity-devastating-households-across-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Rapidly growing online activity devastating households across South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Online betting is showing rapid growth, which Dr Frans Cronje said is causing tremendous damage by exploiting the desperate poverty in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gross gambling revenue (GGR) in South Africa, the amount households spend on betting, increased from R26.3 billion in 2015 to R74.5 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual growth rate of gambling revenue averaged 6.5% between the 2015\/16 and 2019\/20 financial years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the coronavirus outbreak and the shift to online gambling completely changed the game in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gambling revenue growth accelerated to 34.1% in the post-pandemic period, driven by increased betting activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online betting has become the primary driver of the gambling industry in South Africa, significantly outpacing traditional casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betting, which includes retail and online betting, accounts for the largest share of revenue, rising from 12.4% in the 2013 financial year to 69.8% in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, traditional casinos’ contribution to gambling revenue declined markedly from 78.4% to 22.3% over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The significant increase in betting was primarily driven by a surge in online betting revenue over the last few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online betting accounted for 80.7% of total betting revenue in 2023\/24 and 85.5% in 2024\/25. It increased from R29 billion to R44 billion in a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online betting’s R44 billion in revenue is more than casinos, retail betting, limited payout machines, and bingo combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This clearly shows that South Africans have moved to online betting platforms and are spending most of their money there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chart below shows the share of gross gambling revenue by gambling mode in South Africa over the last ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Political parties call for urgent intervention related to online gambling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane described online gambling as a national public health and social crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He campaigned for online gambling to be classified as a sin-tax industry by the National Treasury and face additional taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that a portion of all gambling revenues should be earmarked for prevention, rehabilitation, and youth upliftment programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rise Mzansi shared Maimane’s concerns, arguing that South Africa is in a gambling crisis which requires urgent intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our cell phones have become portable casinos targeting the most vulnerable, including grant recipients, students, and minors,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It warned that South Africans are not just gambling away money which they cannot afford, but money which they do not have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Many are using credit to gamble. This is dangerous for South Africans’ financial situations and the economy as a whole,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party called for a ban on gambling advertisements between 05:00 and 10:00 in the morning and 17:00 and 22:00 in the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africans are bombarded with gambling advertisements. These advertisements do not adequately communicate the dangers of gambling,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wants to increase taxes on the industry and increase the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation contributions from 0.1% to 1% of gross gambling revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It called for gambling operators to allocate 40% of their annual marketing spend on responsible gambling messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They must enhance due diligence for gambling transactions and ban gambling on credit and overdraft,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people behind online gambling in South Africa are evil<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Frans Cronje<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Economic expert Dr Frans Cronje argues that the people behind online gambling in South Africa are evil as they cause tremendous hardship and societal problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cronje is a proponent of free markets and capitalism. However, in the case of online betting, the situation is complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that during the Covid-19 pandemic, people flocked to online betting, driven by aggressive marketing by global gaming powerhouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africans adopted online betting on an enormous scale. They bet R1.5 trillion per year, a fifth of GDP,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online betting companies are continuing their aggressive marketing campaigns, creating the illusion that people can be assured of winning tremendous riches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cronje said the betting companies are exploiting the desperate poverty in South Africa, where people hope they can improve their financial situation through online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that poor South Africans, who are not well educated, are no match for the algorithms used by online betting giants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Betting is addictive. People become addicts. It is like letting heroin run wild in the streets,” Cronje said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that many South Africans are losing a significant portion of their money through betting, leaving them desperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cronje said, despite holding liberal convictions, he would ban online gambling in South Africa if he had the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the people behind the online betting industry are evil, and he does not know how they can live with themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you see some of the people who have lost their money and how desperate they become, you will understand why I say so,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Betting breaks up families. Kids lose their parents. It leads to alcohol and drug abuse. It leads to domestic violence.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Online betting is showing rapid growth, which Dr Frans Cronje said is causing tremendous damage by exploiting the desperate poverty in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":641084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[54509,104546,101997,1719],"class_list":["post-641081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-frans-cronje","tag-gross-gambling-revenue-ggr","tag-online-betting","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641081"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641797,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641081\/revisions\/641797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}