Many South Africans are addicted to online gambling | City Press
Gambling addiction is on the rise. Image: iStock
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It all started with flashing images on his television advertising the game Aviator at the Betway betting site. Three months after seeing it for the first time, Helen* was completely addicted to the game and couldn’t wait for free time to finish it.
He says: “I used to sleep at night to play.” “In the beginning, I didn’t play for money because I was healthy, but I started spending money to buy it. And, where I won at first, I started to lose more and more.”
Helen (36), from Parklands in the Western Cape, is now at her wits end after her gambling addiction consumed her.
He says:
First, I sold small things, such as a hair dryer, my pot set and jewelry. The more you win, the more you want, so you spend more. There were months when I gambled my entire salary – there was a month when I spent more than R100 000.
Helen lost her car in February. Now he too is homeless after receiving an eviction order for underpayment.
His future is bleak.
Helen’s situation is not unique, as more and more people in recent years have fallen into the honeypot of online gambling and become irrevocably hooked.
According to the National Gambling Board’s (NGB) annual report for 2022/23, the number of people referred for treatment with the help of the organization has doubled in just two years, from 1 151 in the financial year 2020/ 21 to 2,299 in 2022/23.
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The number of gamblers who have voluntarily applied to be banned from all gambling platforms has almost quadrupled in the past four years, from 231 in 2019 to 790, according to statistics from the latest.
The destructive effect of the dragon of gambling has been shown in the living rooms of South African soap opera viewers in recent weeks, on the popular kykNet soap, Suidooster.
One of the show’s most popular characters, Mymoena Samsodien (played by Jill Levenberg), lost herself and her valuables in a casino behind a new laundromat. to the surprise and dismay of his friends and loved ones.
Colin Howard, Suidooster’s creative producer, said they decided on the story because gambling addiction is an evil that needs to be highlighted.
When we cover stories, we look for stories that we find interesting, up-to-date, engaging and exciting, that we believe will resonate with viewers. For a long time we thought we wanted to deal with gambling addiction. The idea of an illegal casino also came up at some point, so we decided to combine the two.
As Helen’s story shows, gambling dens are no longer the only places that tempt people with gambling addictions.
In fact, the latest annual report from the NGB shows that online gambling has become the largest part of the gambling industry’s revenue (GGR) since the pandemic. Covid-19.
Where more than half (56%) of GGR came from casinos in 2019/20, the contribution of casinos is now a third (36%). Internet betting has exploded during this period, with its contribution growing from 26% to 50%.
Last year, GGR reached an astonishing R47.2 billion – R12 billion more than the previous year (R34.4 billion). The biggest contributor to this growth was online betting, which grew by R8 billion to R23 billion.
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The gambling industry also plays a role in South African politics. Online gambling magnate Martin Moshal of Betway has donated more than R72 million to political parties since 2021, according to SA Electoral Commission disclosures.
Moshal gave a total of R43 million to John Steenhuisen’s DA and R29.5 million to Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA.
More and more betting companies are also becoming sponsors of major sports teams, teams or events.
Last month, Betway became the new PSL title sponsor after the parties signed a three-year contract worth R900 million. Betway CEO Laurence Michel described it as “one of the biggest investments in the history of sports”.
The PSL has previously objected to financial support from the gambling industry, but PSL chairman Irvin Khoza refused to apologize for the U-turn.
He said: “We are not expelling anyone.
* Not his real name.
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