Forty-two percent of South African gamblers bet to cover everyday expenses or pay off debts, according to recent research, and among those earning between R8 000 and R15 000 a month the figure climbs past half. These are not statistics about leisure. They measure financial desperation, and they place gambling squarely in the public interest.
The wider picture is just as troubling for ordinary households. Over the past year, the share of gamblers reporting gambling-related financial distress climbed from 12% to 22%. Nearly a third of South Africans who gamble admit they have an addiction or a problem. In recent years, the total amount wagered reached R1.5 trillion, and two betting companies sit among the ten most visited websites in the country, drawing close to 80 million visits a month. For a society already under strain, this is not a fringe concern. It is a matter of household security, public health and social protection.
What makes the situation harder for citizens to escape is sheer saturation. Betting brands greet travellers at airports, line the highways, and appear in neighbourhoods and at stadiums. Sports broadcasts and radio are saturated with gambling advertising. During a recent youth football tournament at Giant Stadium in Soshanguve, betting advertisements lined the main street of the town. Sport itself has become the delivery mechanism: the Hollywoodbets Sharks, the 10bet Lions, a top league branded as the Betway Premiership. Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, the country’s biggest sporting brands, run their own Sta’playa campaign with SuperSportBets, while cricket, with its history of match-fixing, is backed by Dafabet.
Famous faces carry the message. Major sporting stars serve as brand ambassadors, their images displayed on billboards and at terminals across the country, and local celebrities and influencers add their reach, selling the dream of aspirational wealth. The groups most exposed to this constant messaging include two of the most vulnerable in society: the young, growing up in an environment where betting is presented as a normal part of sport and entertainment, and the elderly, increasingly at risk of gambling’s financial dangers. Reports indicate that some university students are using National Student Financial Aid Scheme allowances to gamble, and that social grant recipients are spending SASSA funds on bets. Money meant for education and basic survival is being drawn into wagering.
Meanwhile, the institutions that could push back have largely stood aside. Leagues, teams, stakeholders and the media have accepted the situation as the cost of doing business. The logic is circular and well known: teams cannot survive without sponsorship, and in the post-Covid environment, the sponsors with money to spend are betting companies. When livelihoods are at stake, moral considerations recede. But the public is paying the price of that arrangement, and the regulatory framework appears unequal to the task. The National Gambling Act offers little protection against the spread of illegal online gambling, and the South African Bookmakers’ Association has warned that the problem has reached crisis levels, threatening consumers, legitimate operators and the wider economy. Government has begun working to strengthen anti-gambling laws, and that effort must now become a priority.
Recent events have made the urgency impossible to ignore. World Sports Betting, through its Bet to the Beat campaign hosted by social media influencer Chad Jones, arrived at the preschool of Cornwall Hill College in Pretoria. A staff member was surprised with a gambling promotion, and young learners were encouraged to cheer as their teacher spun a prize wheel for cash. “Your teacher has won a chance to win some big money,” Jones told the classroom as he explained the competition. The children chanted “spin, spin, spin” as the wheel turned, and the teacher eventually won R14 000.
After a public backlash, World Sports Betting apologised, withdrew from the campaign and acknowledged that the activation should never have happened. The company accepted responsibility, even while attributing the production to an independent agency. That apology came after the fact, once the damage had been done, and some observers have gone so far as to describe the incident as grooming. In a country grappling with enormous socio-economic challenges, the idea that anyone involved in planning this campaign considered it acceptable is difficult to comprehend.
The preschool episode should be read as a warning that the industry’s marketing practices and the laws governing them need urgent and serious review. It also raises immediate questions about compliance with section 15(1)(b) of the National Gambling Act 7 of 2004 and Regulation 3(1)(i)(ii) of the National Gambling Regulations, 2004. Further background and context are available at https://thenational.co.za/sport/2026-11-06-betting-on-desperation-from-stadiums-to-preschools-the-disturbing-reach-of-south-africa-s-gambling-industry/.
South Africans are already paying a heavy price for an industry that has become difficult to escape, and there is something profoundly wrong with a society in which betting companies are indispensable to sport. The consequences cannot be treated as somebody else’s problem. If a line is not drawn now, the country risks raising a generation that knows how to place a bet long before it understands the cost of losing one.