South Africa’s gambling turnover has surged to about R1.5 trillion in the 2024/2025 financial year, up from roughly R1.1 trillion the previous year, as online and retail betting expand across the country.

Operators’ gross gambling revenue has climbed to around R75 billion, with the sector’s footprint now nearing one percent of GDP.

The expansion is pulling cash out of family budgets and worsening poverty. As participation rises toward roughly two thirds of adults, more grant-dependent and low-income households are shifting money from food, transport, and school needs to wagers. That shift erodes food security, lifts unsecured borrowing, and intensifies financial strain in communities already under pressure.

The Common Sense has previously reported that experts warned gambling is inflicting serious harm on the poorest households, and that the World Health Organization highlights risks that include mental illness, suicide, deeper poverty through diverted spending, family breakdown and violence, financial distress, crime, child neglect, and the use of gambling to launder illicit funds.