In the digital age, where smartphones are extensions of our hands and the internet promises endless opportunities, few trends are as alarming as the explosive growth of online gambling in South Africa. What began as a niche activity has ballooned into a multi-billion-rand industry, reshaping household budgets, economic priorities, and even our national psyche. As the Internet Society of South Africa (ISOC-SA), we champion an open, accessible, and safe internet. But when that same connectivity fuels addictive behaviours and financial ruin, it’s time to hit pause and ask: What are we doing about it?
Recent data paints a stark picture. According to Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) latest report on the personal services industry, income from gambling and betting services skyrocketed from R25 billion in 2018 to a staggering R191 billion in 2023. Within this surge, bookmaker and online gambling services stand out as the runaway leaders, generating R152.6 billion in 2023 alone—up from just R10.1 billion five years prior. This isn’t mere growth; it’s a fifteen-fold explosion, outpacing every other activity in the sector, from health to education. Meanwhile, traditional casinos are in decline, with a 3.3% annual drop, underscoring how the internet has democratised—and dangerously amplified—gambling access.
The National Gambling Board’s figures corroborate this digital shift. Gross gambling revenue hit R59.3 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, a 25.7% jump from the previous year, largely driven by betting. Betting, once a mere 10% of the market, overtook casinos during the COVID-19 lockdowns and hasn’t looked back. Today, it’s the dominant force, with online platforms making it as easy as a swipe to place a bet on a soccer match or a horse race.
The Human Cost: Beyond the Numbers
These aren’t abstract figures—they represent real lives unravelled. Household spending on gambling now claims 1.6% of the total consumer price index (CPI) basket, ranking it 12th highest, just behind beer. In the recreation, sport, and culture category, it devours over half of all spending, dwarfing gym fees at a mere 5.9%. For many South Africans grappling with unemployment, food insecurity, and economic inequality, this “entertainment” comes at the expense of essentials. The 2021 PIRLS survey already revealed that 80% of Grade 4 learners can’t read for meaning—imagine diverting library funds or family budgets to fuel this boom instead.
Online gambling’s siren call is particularly insidious because it’s always on, always accessible. No need for a trip to a casino; just an app download and a proxy like a cellphone number via services such as PayShap, which ironically processed 44.8 million transactions in August 2025. This seamless integration with everyday digital payments—now involving 13 banks—lowers barriers even further, turning impulse into instant regret. We’ve seen stories of families losing homes, addictions spiralling into debt, and communities fractured by the lure of quick wins that rarely materialise.
From an internet governance perspective, this growth exposes deeper flaws. Platforms often operate with lax oversight, harvesting user data to personalise temptations and deploying algorithms that prey on vulnerability. Privacy breaches, targeted ads, and unregulated fintech integrations amplify risks, especially in a country where digital literacy lags and cyber threats abound.
What Can We Do? A Call to Collective Action
The good news? We have the tools to course-correct. As ISOC-SA, we urge stakeholders to act decisively:

Arthur Goldstuck, one of our oldest members, produces an annual report on the state of the Internet in SA. We all get to see this one as it’s sponsored by Peach payments (kudos and thanks for sharing) and you can download and use it from here. Entrepreneurs find it useful. We can only say wow, since we started the total ecommerce has exploded from R3.5 million to R71 billion. That has to be a succesful internet society, or are we mixing that up with internet economy. Please comment!

https://www.peachpayments.com/scale/world-wide-worx-2024-online-retail-report

Did you notice that the cost of fibre is going up and the speeds are too, whether you like it not.
Do you use fibre or want to use fibre for your internet?
Is your fibre fast?
Is it reliable?
Is it affordable? If these questions are important to you, you should join our group.

We, the Internet Society of South Africa (ISOC-ZA) was initially formed in 1997 in response to the exclusive telecommunications policy environment. We represented the interests of telecommunications users in national, provincial and local policy discussions, in the press and in any other relevant forum. After the Telkom mono/duopoly ended in 2007, we have continued supporting training initiatives. Until now, we have not been much involved in policy discussions because fierce competition has helped most users get online.

The purpose of ISOC-ZA is to serve the interests of the South African Internet community. In fulfilling this purpose we serve all persons and entities who are in the SA or who are interested or involved in the South African Internet community. ISOC-ZA is broadly inclusive on a regional, linguistic and racial basis and the community whose interests it shall serve is construed as widely as possible.

Now, in 2024, we recognise that with the provision of fibre, we can and will see many monopolies emerge. This will make the internet lives of some South Africans problematic again. Many Fibre Network Operators (FNOs) are not managed with best practices for open access networks, which also results in much pain for users.

So we have created the ISOC-ZA Fibre Forum, where you can air your views, to get support and help us create submissions to policy makers.

Please join us if:
You want to know about the laws and guidelines for fibre operators
You want help with submissions to various industry and governmental bodies
You wish to air your views and share information about your desired or undesired fibre provider

You can follow us on:
Email – join the mailing list here https://mail.vanilla.co.za/lists/mail.vanilla.co.za/listinfo/isoc.org.za-fibre
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ISOCza/
Discord – https://discord.gg/fY9ucN9c
And more to come…

The Internet Society was founded by two of the “fathers of the Internet” — Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn — to facilitate and support the evolution of the Internet and its beneficial use. They are also accredited with the technical invention of the Internet. Both seen here talking about it candidly, and we are sharing this with you as we feel the same way about the Internet Society of South Africa.

We’re having a short AGM together with our sister organisation Internet South Africa. There will be a short reportback on activities and an appeal to read the ZADNA regulations out for comment. The event will be the first time we have two locations (Joburg and Cape Town) happening concurrently online and realtime. Internet South Africa is now the only Internet Society chapter in South Africa and boasts a 24 year history. We are still, one of the oldest and largest chapters in the world. Hope to see you there 🙂

Time: Beers start flowing from 5:30pm, meeting 6:30pm – 8pm

Joburg: Protea Hotel, Wanderers
Cape Town: Protea Hotel, Fire and Ice

Yesterday we submitted the following response to the budget advertised by the zaDNA last month. We will be following and hope to engage further with their new board of directors. The following are key points:

• Income has flattened, this is the first time that there has been a decrease in the number of .za domain names registered
• Expenditure has increased year on year, and although the budget suggests decrease in income, it proposes increase in expenditure
• Budgeting process follows previous budgets rather than actuals
• Emoluments to Directors account for almost R1.5m expense

The Internet Society of South Africa invites you to attend our AGM 2020, Thursday 27 Feb, 2020 at 5:30 PM – 7 PM, at SOtano on Bree, Cape Town

Have you seen these photos in ads on Facebook? or on other news sites?

The following one is similarly common:

These are all scams and frauds, and there are many more like this. Please do be careful to double check all facts before believing anyone. Mark did put out a warning many years ago yet the frausdsters continue.

One of our most profound members and supporters has asked us to advise you that you should report them every time that you see tham, we all should!

Some South Africans do have access to and participate in the 4IR, the government is trying to find ways for more to participate. This research is evidence that we have the technology. Sadly, we’re not confident that our government can make it happen. Please help us to help them…

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/secure-internet-servers-per-1-million-people?country=ZAF

We have been supporting and attending iWeek for twenty years, and the ISPA have decided this is the last. If you’re not sure if that’s true, keep in mind that it’s free and the attendance has not been growing (except at the Cape Town venue).

Iweek is definitely the one national industry conference about the internet industry, always with great things to learn and interesting people to meet.

There is a great programme focussing on practical issues for South African ISPs — dealing with pressures to police content, developing staff skills, and surviving in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive access market. SAFNOG-5 will be taking place in conjunction with iWeek, so there will also be plenty of quality technical presentations for iWeek 2019 delegates to attend.

To register for iWeek 2019: http://www.iweek.org.za