31 OCTOBER 2025, CAPE TOWN
REGULATING THE GAMBLING INDUSTRY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: WHAT IS THE ANC-LED GOVERNMENT DOING TO ADDRESS THE GAMBLING INDUSTRY CRISIS?
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON
HONOURABLE MEMBERS
MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTERS
COMRADES
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
GREETINGS TO YOU ALL!
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON,
The subject for debate today is a critical conversation of national importance. The gambling industry crisis in South Africa is viral in all its manifestations as depicted by staggering figures of gambling turnover, gross gambling revenue, gambling prevalence, and problem gambling prevalence. The costs of this crisis are overwhelming, and this is why the ANC-led government introduced the National Gambling Act of 1996 and currently advances the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2018 to regulate the gambling industry in the public interest while protecting vulnerable citizens from the dangers of problem gambling.
HONOURABLE CHAIRPERSON,
Though this debate is of national importance, it has a much shorter intellectual pedigree for one obvious reason: it is framed in a way that feeds into the false narrative that whenever there is a crisis on a national basis, it is liable to be interpreted as the ANC-led government’s failure or inaction. In other words, this debate implicitly suggests that the gambling industry crisis has become a daily routine, consuming a lion’s share of poor and working-class households’ income, while the ANC-led government remains largely idle or silent. This is remarkably untrue. The ANC-led government has acted before, and continues to act, against the gambling industry crisis even though its actions are treated with suspicion and cynicism by other opposition parties. For illustrative purposes, the National Gambling Board (NGB), in collaboration with provincial gambling authorities, commercial banks, and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), has tightened regulations and strengthened enforcement to intensify the crackdown on unlicensed online gambling operations, responsible for the gambling industry crisis.
This collaboration has come in handy in closing numerous unlicensed online gambling operations and in seizing a sizable share of illicit winnings in the gambling industry, reflecting the ANC-led government’s courage to tighten regulation in the industry that circulates billions of rands and deals with millions of lives. While this real progress is worth applauding, the ANC acknowledges that it is merely a drop in an ocean of need, largely because the gambling industry crisis is evolving and penetrates areas of economic and social life and, consequently, places economic and social life at risk. Therefore, these pockets of progress taking place across the country are insufficient to protect vulnerable citizens from the harms of a fast-growing epidemic of gambling addiction. Nevertheless, the ANC-led government will not give up until every vulnerable citizen is protected.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The ANC-led government has signalled an intention to protect vulnerable citizens from the harms of gambling addiction that drain their finances and mental health through the appointment of the new competent Board of Directors for the National Gambling Board. Honourable Members will recall that the Board of Directors resigned when the National Gambling Board was placed under administration in 2014 due to governance inefficiencies. With a fully functional competent Board of Directors, the National Gambling Board will become an effective “watchdog” that can prevent unlicensed online gambling operators from targeting vulnerable citizens from poor and working-class households, not to mention track and confiscate more illicit winnings and capital outflows linked to offshore gambling. This is neither symbolic nor window dressing! We are restoring the credibility of an institution with a substantive regulatory authority to eradicate gambling industry crisis.
FELLOW SOUTH AFRICANS,
The ANC’s approach to the gambling industry is built on the basis of balancing economic participation and social responsibility. What do I mean by this? The ANC will never advocate for the prohibition of the legalised gambling industry. Let me demystify a misconception that rears its ugly head in debates like this – that is, because gambling license fees, taxes, and levies contribute substantially to the National Revenue Fund (NRF), this creates financial dependence by the government that discourages closure of the gambling industry. In short, this financial dependence on industry revenues equate to regulatory capture wherein the ANC-led government represents and articulates private interests of the gambling industry operators. This misconception undermines what the ANC-led government has demonstrated in practice. This government reinvests license fees as well as gambling taxes and levies in education and awareness programmes that help millions of families, communities, and youth to deal with gambling addiction. Put as simply as possible, the gambling industry revenues collected by the ANC-led government are not kickbacks but public resources that enable the tightening as opposed to the weakening of regulation in the gambling industry.
Rather, the ANC does not advocate for the prohibition of the legalised gambling industry because this industry remains one of the few labour-intensive sectors of the economy outside of the traditional value-added agriculture and manufacturing industries. As such, it contributes to the much-needed jobs that South Africa desperately needs. The ANC’s support for the continuation or, more exactly, the expansion of the legalised gambling industry is informed by regulatory changes in the pipeline that are aligned with the international best standards for responsible gambling, contained in the National Gambling Amendment Bill of 2018 currently before this House.
This Amendment Bill seeks to transform the nature of the way in which the gambling industry operates with the shift towards a transparent, accountable, and compassionate gambling industry. This will be done through, among other things, (i) strengthening coordination between national and provincial regulators, thereby closing regulatory gaps that enable unlicensed online gambling operations to thrive; (ii) establishing a National Register of Self-Excluded Persons, meant to reduce stigma and shame experienced by gambling addicts by allowing them to voluntarily block themselves from gambling activities; (iii) banning predatory gambling advertising that glorifies gambling as a short-cut to affluence, wealth, and prosperity; and (iv) modernising the gambling industry oversight amid the rapid advancement of online casinos, mobile gambling apps, and offshore betting sites.
HONOURABLE CHAIRPERSON,
The ANC’s support for the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2018 is not a desperate rhetorical attempt to regain legitimacy. It is principled. We support this Amendment Act of 2018 because it bears relationship with the ANC’s position that unrestrained gambling advertisements induce gambling addiction, especially among young people. Therefore, provisions that restrict when, where, and how gambling may be advertised, enshrined in this Amendment Act, are a responsible step in the right direction akin to steps taken by European and African countries such as Italy, Spain, Australia, Kenya, and Nigeria.
IN CONCLUSION,
We must not allow this debate to distract us from the bigger picture. The gambling industry, just like telecommunications, real estate, banking, and grocery retail, is dominated by few large operators owned by a racial minority with split loyalties. Adequate reform in the gambling industry must go beyond regulation and involve transformation of ownership patterns to ensure inclusive growth rather the perpetuation of income and wealth inequality skewed by race. Through its licensing framework, the National Gambling Board must prioritise inclusive participation of historically disadvantaged operators in the gambling industry so that historically disadvantaged persons as the mostly affected by the impact of the gambling industry can also share in its profits. The country can benefit a great deal from the inclusion of historically disadvantaged operators in the gambling industry as this will minimize the concentration of corporate savings in the hands of a few minority operators, unwilling to reinvest back into South Africa’s economy. Moreover, this will also curb the repatriation of gambling profits by few large foreign operators while vulnerable citizens from poor and working-class households bear the brunt of the gambling industry’s social and moral costs. This is the only way that we can build the gambling industry that uplifts our people rather than exploit their vulnerabilities.
I thank you.