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This comes as local consumers are under severe pressure, with a high cost of living and a significant debt burden.
South African households’ spending on gambling was revealed by Statistics SA’s latest Stats Biz publication.
The nation’s official statistics agency explained that gambling and betting are on the rise in South Africa.
It said the industry is booming, with gross gambling revenue (GGR) reaching R59.3 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, representing a 25.7% rise from R47.2 billion in 2022/23. This is also more than double the GGR of R23.3 billion recorded in 2020/21.
The rise in popularity of gambling in South Africa can largely be attributed to the boom in online betting platforms.
Online gambling has overtaken casinos in popularity in South Africa, accounting for 60.5% of industry GGR at R35.9 billion.
The National Gambling Board said GGR growth between the different gambling modes showed highly unbalanced growth, with betting being the fastest-growing, increasing by 51.2% relative to the previous year.
Stats SA, which releases the country’s consumer price index (CPI) each month, was also able to provide an overview of household spending on gambling.
Gambling and betting activities are listed as one of 391 products and services in the 2025 CPI basket. These include lottery tickets, casinos, betting, bingo, and Limited Payout Machines.
Stats SA said gambling accounts for 1.6% of total household spending, placing it as the twelfth highest weight in the basket, just behind beer.
Within the recreation, sport & culture group of products, which holds a weight of 2.86% in the CPI basket, gambling dominates, taking just over half of household spending.
The graph below, courtesy of Stats SA, shows the dominance of gambling in this spending category.
South Africans under pressure
The substantial amount of spending South African households allocate to gambling comes with a significant negative impact on individuals’ finances.
Old Mutual’s most recent Savings and Investments Monitor for 2025 included questions about South Africans’ attitudes towards gambling.
The data showed that a staggering 52% of working South Africans gamble, with it being the most popular among 30 to 49 year-old men.
More concerningly, Old Mutual’s data shows that 40% of working South Africans acknowledge they gamble frequently, hoping to make money that can cover some of their expenses and debt.
This is more prevalent among lower-income earners in South Africa, with nearly half of those earning between R8,000 and R15,000 gambling frequently to cover expenses.
This comes as South African consumers are under severe financial pressure, with rising costs and declining salaries weighing on their disposable income.
Nedbank explained earlier this year that South Africa’s household debt-to-income ratio, which measures the average percentage of disposable household income that goes towards paying off debt, remains unacceptably high.
The Reserve Bank’s latest Quarterly Bulletin showed that household debt as a percentage of nominal disposable income increased from 62.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 62.7% in the first quarter of 2025.
In addition, many South Africans cannot afford to retire, with 10X Investments’ Retirement Reality Report 2023/2024 showing that only 6% of the country’s population is on track to retire comfortably.
This is part of a broader problem with many South Africans being unable to save money, meaning a single emergency can set them back for years.
More than 80% of middle-income South Africans have little to no emergency savings, with 27% having no accessible savings at all and over half holding less than a week’s take-home pay in reserve.
At the same time, South Africa has seen its unemployment rate grow in 2025, with the second quarter seeing the official unemployment rate increase by 0.3 percentage points to 33.2%.
Issued on Daily Investor by Bianke Neethling | https://dailyinvestor.com/finance/101692/south-africans-spend-most-of-their-fun-money-on-one-thing/
