To say that South Africa’s betting industry has experienced considerable growth over the past few years would be an understatement, with the industry now a vital segment of the country’s economy.

This growth has come with political concerns, however, a hardly unsparing development given South Africa’s extensive problems with poverty, societal inequality and a huge wealth gap. For regulators, advertising is now a big issue.

Speaking to South African business media outlet Moneyhub, Lungile Dukwana, Acting CEO of the National Gambling Board (NGB), South Africa’s gambling regulator, shared that the authority plans to go after advertising.

A particular problem for the regulator is the ‘issue of the influencers whose target is normally younger people in terms of their advertising’, Dukwana said, adding that this is the its ‘number one’ issue.

Addressing advertising

The news shouldn’t come as a shock to the industry. Gambling advertising has become a hot button political topic relating to the sector across several markets which, like South Africa, have seen considerable industry growth.

In the UK, where online gross gambling yield (GGY) between April-June 2025 stood at $1.49bn, pressure has been mounting around sports sponsorship to adverts on the London Underground network. 

Meanwhile, the Netherlands fully implemented an extensive ban on gambling advertising earlier this year, as did neighbouring Belgium. Dutch politicians had been concerned about a ‘bombardment’ of gambling advertising in the years since the online market was re-regulated in October 2021.

In South Africa, the NGB estimates that gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the 2023/24 financial year was R59.3bn (€2.9bn), a 25.7% increase on the year prior. In this context, the regulator wants to ensure advertising does not target under-age consumers and that operators are obeying licensing conditions.

“Other issues are the times of operating or of advertising, where the minors should not be exposed to the messaging of gambling, so to speak, but also that there must not be misleading messages in the advertisements that are actually put in place.

“But also, the obeying of the licensing conditions. We do a lot of oversight visits to the provinces or provincial licensing authorities, and we raise some of these particular things and say that we need to obey the licensing conditions that have been given.

“So you can’t be licensed in Mpumalanga or in KwaZulu-Natal, and then you advertise all over the country.”

Different countries, same issues

While 8,000 miles apart, markets like the UK, the Netherlands and South Africa are seeing a number of striking parallels. Firstly is, obviously, the value of each country’s gambling markets, with each contributing significantly to the national economy.

The three even share some companies, with Betfred active in the UK and South Africa. Betway was once active in all three, although it has withdrawn from the Netherlands citing regulatory changes.

Also similar, however, are public and political concerns about the societal impact of gambling – and as expected, in South Africa these concerns have focused heavily on advertising, as seen in the UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Another common concern, however, is the presence of black market firms. In his appearance on Moneyweb’s podcast, Dukwana shared: “We are seeing a lot of the proliferation from the outside companies that are not even licensed in South Africa, operating online in South Africa.

“That is the challenge we are dealing with as a gambling board,” he said, though also sharing that the regulator cannot be certain exactly how big the offshore unlicensed market is in South Africa.

The regulator aims to close as many sites as possible in coordination with ISPs, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the Department of Communications, he told Moneyweb.