Gambling in South Africa

History of gambling in South Africa

Most forms of gambling was banned or restricted from as early as 1673, with the Gambling Act of 1965 officially banning all forms except betting on horse racing. In the late 1970s casinos started operating in the bantustans of Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei and Venda. By 1995 an estimated 2 000 illegal casinos were believed to be operating within the country. In 1996 the National Gambling Act instituted a system of licensed casinos and a single national lottery.

Some scholars have argued that illegal gambling was at least tacitly supported by mining companies in order to keep black African workers locked in poverty and available as a cheap source of labour.

Prevalence and value

According to a 2006 study the most popular forms of gambling in South Africa were the National Lottery (86.9% participation), slots (27.7% participation), scratchcards (22.7% participation), charity jackpot competitions (11.6% participation) and horse racing betting (11.5% participation). 8.3% of respondents said they never gambled and a further 5.5% characterised themselves as occasional game players with no regular forms of gambling.

In the 2006/2007 financial year licensed gross gambling revenue as monitored by the National Gambling Board totaled R13.52 billion, from R11.4 billion the previous year. 86.2 percent of that revenue was derived in casinos. In the same period the Board reported a total of 455 raids on and closures of presumed illegal gambling operations.

Types of gambling

South African National Lottery

The South African National Lottery was established in 2000 and has been in continuous operation since, apart from a suspension between April 2007 and October 2007. In its last year of operation transaction values totaled R3.972 billion, with an average of five million transactions per week, making it the most popular form of gambling in South Africa.

Casinos:Casinos operate in all metropolitan areas in South Africa.

Horse racing

On-track betting on horse races lost its monopoly on legal South African betting in 1996 and, due to its complexity and the difficulty of developing new players, did not effectively compete with the National Lottery or casino games.

Betting on horse races is controlled by Saftote and operated by Gold Circle in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape and by Phumelela in the remainder of the country.