South Africa’s R1.5 trillion gambling bonanza

The National Gambling Board (NGB) has revealed that South Africa saw R1.5 trillion gambling turnover in the 2024/25 financial year.

This was largely driven by the boom in online betting, which contributed 60% of the country’s gross gambling revenue (GGR).

This was revealed in the NGB’s presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition on Wednesday, 15 October 2025.

This presentation showed that gambling turnover reached a record R1.5 trillion in the 2024/25 financial year, up from R1.1 trillion in 2023/24.

In addition, gross gambling revenue amounted to R75 billion in 2024/25, up from R59.3 billion in the prior year.

Betting, which includes online betting, generated around 70% this total, at R52.3 billion, while casinos contributed R16.6 billion, or 22% of the total.

The casino industry’s revenue fell by 4.1% compared to the prior year, which the NGB attributed to a decline in operational slots and tables.

There were 21,813 operational slots in 2023/24, and by the end of 2024/25, this number had declined to 21,370, down 2%. Operational tables declined by a similar figure, from 910 to 890.

The NGB said this was due to the growth in popularity of online slots, suggesting that substitution may also be taking place with punters gambling online rather than at physical slot machines.

The LPM industry remained the third largest sector, generating R4.1 billion, while the bingo industry contributed R1.7 billion.

The board explained that the shift to online gambling was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic in the 2020/21 financial year, when betting became the dominant gambling mode in South Africa, overtaking casinos.

This can be seen in the graph below, where red represents casinos GGR, orange represents betting GGR, green represents LPM GGR, and yellow represents Bingo GGR.

South African households under pressure

The popularity of gambling in South Africa can be seen as a double-edged sword, with both benefits and disadvantages.

The NGB highlighted in its presentation that the gambling industry provides 33,169 direct jobs and over 144,000 indirect jobs.

In addition, the industry contributes heavily to tax revenue. The NGB said the taxes and levies generated by the gambling industry amounted to R5.8 billion in 2024/25, with the Western Cape the most significant contributor.

However, this boom in gambling also comes as South African consumers are under considerable cost-of-living pressures and are dedicating a significant portion of their disposable income to gambling.

Old Mutual’s Savings and Investments Monitor for 2025 showed that 52% of working South Africans gamble, with it being the most popular among 30 to 49-year-old men.

This report also showed that 40% of working South Africans acknowledge they gamble frequently, hoping to make money that can cover some of their expenses and debt.

Among the gamblers surveyed, sports betting ranks as the most popular type of gambling at 61%, followed by the lotto at 53% and slots at 52%. 

Just over 60% of gamblers gamble at least once a week, with close to 40% gambling even more frequently. Around 10% say they gamble every day.

These figures correlate with data from the NGB, which revealed in its presentation that gambling prevalence stood at 65.7% in the 2024/25 financial year.

The board also identified a 31% “problem gambling” prevalence over this period.

Statistics South Africa recently revealed that gambling accounts for nearly 55% of household spending on recreation, sport and culture in South Africa.

Stats SA said gambling accounts for 1.6% of total household spending, placing it as the twelfth highest weight in the CPI basket, just behind beer.

Within the recreation, sport & culture group of products, which holds a weight of 2.86% in the CPI basket, gambling dominates, taking just over half of household spending.

The graph below, courtesy of Stats SA, shows the dominance of gambling in this spending category.