{"id":127027,"date":"2026-06-18T11:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=127027"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:51:21","slug":"bad-news-for-south-africas-online-betting-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/127027-bad-news-for-south-africas-online-betting-industry","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for South Africa’s online betting industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A study<\/a> by Yazi Research has identified several concerning user behaviours in the South African online gambling industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yazi Research is a research company notable for its WhatsApp-native approach to data collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It allows for South Africans to submit their answers to survey questions through the popular messaging platform – even supporting voice notes as a means of answering questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using its own tools, Yazi Research recently conducted an online gambling impact study that received over 1,000 responses and covered all nine provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found that 90% of respondents had gambled online in the preceding 30 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, while 72% described themselves as in control of their gambling, 57% acknowledged chasing same-day losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mainstream participation, a confident self-image, and a behavioural reality that does not quite match the self-image – that is the shape of the category today,” said Yazi Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The strategic, regulatory and product implications start with accepting all three numbers at once, not picking the one that flatters the narrative.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research found additional concerning trends in user behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

57% of respondents admitted that they have sacrificed an essential to fund their gambling spending, while 29% of respondents have borrowed money to gamble – with over a third of these respondents admitting to borrowing in the last 30 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of particular concern was that 26% of respondents said they allocate more than 10% of their monthly income to gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had my last R200 for transport for the week and I decided to play slots and I lost all of it,” said one respondent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Last time I was playing with SASSA money. I lose all that money. I won’t forget that day. Too much pain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One positive to come out of the research is that per-bet stakes were found to be relatively low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly half of all bets were for less than R50, while an additional 35% were between R50 and R100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, only 18% of bets were for more than R100 – with only 3% of bets exceeding R500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is not a high-roller market. It is a low-stakes leisure market,” said Yazi Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howver, it added that while the low-stakes framing is true based on literal stake size, it remains false when accounting for ‘wallet composition.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because there is a clear trend of bets being funded by rent money, transport money, SASSA grants, debt, and family contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loot boxes as gambling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Online gambling is not limited to online sports betting sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can also arguably be found in video games, where loot boxes are common place in many of the world’s most popular titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyGaming recently unpacked<\/a> the complex question of whether loot boxes can be classed as gambling in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using analysis from leading local legal firms, the conclusion was that South Africa’s laws and regulations are too vague to make a definitive statement either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, other countries have taken more aggressive steps against loot boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belgium has classified buying loot boxes as gambling, while Brazil banned loot boxes in video games likely to be played by children under the age of 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many games have also been forced to disclose the probabilities of getting different items in each loot box, to align with regulations and expectations in major markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, there are few regulations being enforced in South Africa to protect vulnerable parties against the addictive nature of loot boxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29% of South Africans have borrowed money to gamble, according to data from Yazi Research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":127029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2067545870174663010","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[25190,26636,26635],"class_list":["post-127027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-loot-boxes","tag-online-gambling","tag-yazi-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127027"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127035,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127027\/revisions\/127035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}