Gambling trends in South Africa reveal an online boom alongside growing consumer unease.
South Africans wagered more than R1.5 trillion on gambling in the 2024/25 financial year, almost a third more than the year before, according to the National Gambling Board. The regulator estimates that around 60% of gambling revenue now comes from online play. Gambling has moved off the casino floor and away from the lottery counter, onto the phone in almost every pocket.
KLA’s latest YouGov Profiles+ data shows what that shift looks like from the consumer’s side. 41% of South African internet users aged 18+ now say they use gambling websites, up from 24% in October 2021. Over the same period, more people say they should gamble less, and more say gambling should be banned altogether.
Gambling is becoming a more visible part of everyday digital life, and South Africans are increasingly uneasy about it. For brands and consumer insights teams, the story is not simply greater digital exposure. It is the growing gap between what people do and how they feel about it.
Gambling Trends in South Africa: The Shift to Mobile
The scale of the market has grown quickly. The Solidarity Research Institute estimates that online gambling grew by 390% between 2021 and 2025, and that around three-quarters of the R1.5 trillion wagered in 2024/25 was placed online. Betting, which includes sports betting, made up 70% of gross gambling revenue in the same year and was the only form of gambling to grow.
Turnover counts every rand bet, including winnings that are bet again, so it is far larger than what players actually lose. Gross gambling revenue, the amount operators keep, was still R74.5 billion in 2024/25, up 25.6% on the previous year.
Policymakers are taking notice. National Treasury has proposed a 20% tax on online betting revenue, and the National Gambling Board has flagged influencer advertising, particularly content aimed at younger people, as a concern.
Gambling Websites Now Sit Alongside Everyday Online Habits
In the KLA YouGov data, the 17-percentage-point rise in gambling website use is the largest shift among the comparable measures. At 41%, gambling sites are now used by four in ten internet users, not far behind online gaming (50%). They remain well behind essentials such as online banking (82%) and streaming (63%), but they have become part of the same routine of apps and websites people open every day.
Mobile makes that routine easy. In a 2026 GeoPoll survey, 96% of South African bettors said they place bets on a mobile device. A bet is now as close at hand as a banking app or a WhatsApp message.
The most popular lottery games have held steady: 32% selected PowerBall in the past 12 months in both 2021 and the current data. Casino-style games have grown, however. 28% now select slots, double the 14% recorded in 2021, and fewer people select none of the listed activities (18%, down from 22%).
What this means for brands: Pair usage data with research into frequency, spend and motivation before building a strategy around a rising trend.
More Respondents Say They Should Gamble Less
Agreement with the statement “I really should gamble less than I do” rose from 33% in 2021 to 42% in the current data, combining ‘Definitely agree’ and ‘Tend to agree’. The share who definitely agree increased from 18% to 25%.
This concern is not confined to one group. It is highest among 35- to 44-year-olds (30% definitely agree) and men (28%, compared with 22% of women). It is also strongest among higher-income respondents: 35% definitely agree that they should gamble less, compared with 21% of lower-income respondents.
Concern also sits alongside a comfort with risk. Among people who definitely agree they should gamble less, 57% definitely agree that they don’t mind taking risks with their money, compared with 27% of those who definitely disagree. The data does not tell us why respondents feel this way, or whether their behaviour has changed, but it does show that concern is now a meaningful part of the consumer story.
What this means for brands: Look at consumer sentiment as well as activity. High engagement with a category does not automatically mean positive feelings about it.
Support for Restricting Gambling Has Grown
Responses to the statement “All gambling should be illegal” have also shifted. Overall agreement rose from 33% in 2021 to 40% in the current data, with the share who definitely agree increasing from 18% to 24%. Opposition has not disappeared: 18% now definitely disagree, compared with 16% in 2021, while 24% neither agree nor disagree.
Higher-income respondents are the most likely to back a ban: 38% definitely agree that all gambling should be illegal, compared with 20% of lower-income respondents. Views are firming at both ends, with the stronger movement towards restriction, at the same time as policymakers debate tighter controls on online betting and advertising.
What this means for brands: Segment audiences by attitudes as well as behaviours. A category-wide average can hide sharply different expectations and sensitivities.
Gambling Isn’t Simply a Hardship Story
Rising living costs are important context, and money is often part of why people say they gamble. In Old Mutual’s 2025 Savings and Investment Monitor, 52% of working South Africans earning R8,000 a month or more said they gamble, and making extra money was the main reason given, particularly among middle- and lower-income earners.
KLA’s data on gambling trends in South Africa adds an important nuance. Respondents who said their household’s finances were worse than a month earlier were not more likely to report gambling: 24% of this group selected none of the listed activities, compared with 15% of those whose finances were unchanged and 18% of those whose finances were better. Gambling is also spread across income groups rather than concentrated among the lowest earners. Middle-income respondents were the most likely to play PowerBall (41%, compared with 24% of both lower- and higher-income respondents).
The group with worse finances is small (101 respondents), so the result should be read with caution, and a one-month measure of household finances is not the same as long-term cost-of-living pressure. Taken together, these gambling trends in South Africa suggest financial pressure is only part of the story. Understanding the rest, from entertainment to the hope of a big win, needs research that asks people directly why they play.
What this means for brands: Test the motivations behind behaviour with targeted research before treating economic pressure as the explanation.
Understanding Gambling Trends in South Africa
Gambling trends in South Africa are among the most talked-about consumer issues right now, and the data shows why the conversation is complicated. Which audiences report using gambling websites? How do their attitudes differ? What else is happening in their financial and digital lives? The answers matter beyond this one category: behaviour and sentiment do not always move in the same direction.
KLA combines YouGov Profiles consumer data with bespoke research to explore these nuances. To understand the behaviours and motivations shaping your own audience, explore KLA’s research solutions and YouGov-powered brand insights, or contact KLA to discuss YouGov Profiles data or any other research needs for your brand.
Methodology
YouGov Profiles is a segmentation and media planning tool. With data collected daily, it provides a comprehensive view of consumers’ worlds.
The data referenced in this article is sourced from YouGov Profiles+ South Africa (Dataset: 2026-10-11) accessed through KLA, the authorised YouGov partner in sub-Saharan Africa, and benchmarked against YouGov Profiles+ South Africa, 10 October 2021.
The population is South African adults with access to the internet, aged 18+. Figures are weighted to this population and are based on those answering each question, and agreement figures combine “Tend to agree” and “Definitely agree” unless stated otherwise.
Unweighted sample sizes: 2021 n~275-5094; 2026 n~746-3910; Lower income n~281–289, Middle income n~276–283, and Higher income n~151. Figures are descriptive, not causal.
Market context is drawn from the National Gambling Board’s FY2024/25 gambling statistics, the Solidarity Research Institute’s Online Gambling in South Africa report (October 2026), GeoPoll’s Betting in Africa 2026 survey, National Treasury’s January 2026 online gambling tax proposal and the 2025 Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor. These sources use different populations and methods and are not directly comparable with YouGov Profiles+ data.
