ZA Gambling Stats : What’s Contributing to the Significant Growth in the Market ?

An Overview of the South African Gambling Industry

We all know that the gambling industry in its entirety is growing at a rapid rate. In short, growth in the market is expected wherever gambling is legalized in some way or another. It is a multi-billion dollar business after all! Simply put, the gambling industry is thriving worldwide.

In South Africa’s case, no one expected it to grow at such a rapid rate. Nonetheless, it happened ! Throughout the last few years, the market has fully complied to all laws and legislations imposed by the National Gambling Board (NGB), as well as the nine other provincial boards who manage the market.

Whilst it can be said that the market is heavily regulated, it doesn’t mean players can’t enjoy the full experience. At the time of writing, players are legally allowed to participate and place bets in casino games, bingo, limited payout machines, horse racing and sports betting. That said, online casino remains a grey area. At this point in time, it’s not yet legalized or regulated in South Africa. However, players can still create accounts with licensed bookmakers and offshore sites that accept ZA players. In the long run, this still leads to more growth in the South African online gambling industry.

Bearing all this in mind, how exactly is the South African gambling industry growing ? Let’s take a closer look at the past decade.

Revenue Stats

National Lottery. Although it was banned for a while, it still succeeded in generating sufficient annual revenues. In fact, the lottery alone generated R3.972.

Moving on to 2015, annual revenues reached unprecedented heights. In fact, the market increased its gross gambling revenues by 11.2%. This means that it managed to hit the R26 billion mark. Seeing as this market doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, casino experts have predicated that they are expecting it to reach R34.8 billion by the end of 2020.

The South African gambling industry also owes its success to sports betting enthusiasts. In 2011, the market only made R478 million, however, things changed in 2015. When we compare and contrast the two, the difference is huge! In fact, the revenues increased to a staggering R2.4 billion.