Why Africa Needs Stronger Public Health Response for Responsible Gambling

This article by Iyke Bede is a collaborative effort between GAMINGWEEK and GambleAwareNG’s newsletter, Safe Gaming for Africa. It examines why shifting the conversation from personal blame to public health and prevention could become one of the most important steps towards reducing gambling-related harm across the continent

As gambling markets expand rapidly across Africa, a growing body of responsible-gambling advocates is calling for a fundamental change in how gambling harm is understood and addressed. Rather than placing the burden entirely on individuals to gamble responsibly, they argue that governments, regulators, operators and communities must build prevention, early intervention and consumer protection into gambling ecosystems before harm becomes entrenched.

It is tempting to look at someone struggling with gambling and conclude that the problem began and ended with personal choices. But beneath the surface lies a more complicated reality—one shaped by social pressures, the gambling environment, access to betting products, advertising, technology and the circumstances in which people make decisions.

For decades, gambling-harm conversations have focused heavily on personal responsibility, with individuals encouraged to exercise discipline and self-control. While personal agency remains important, that approach can overlook the wider conditions that influence gambling behaviour long before harmful patterns become apparent.

The South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF) has been at the forefront of efforts to change that narrative, advocating for gambling harm to be treated not simply as an individual problem but as a public health concern with consequences for families, communities and economies.

“Our greatest milestone has been to redefine how South Africa views gambling addiction, moving it away from an isolated individual ‘problem’ and creating awareness that gambling problem is not an individual burden but a national public health crisis,” said Sidongile Simelane-Quntana, Executive Director of the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation.

That perspective fundamentally changes where responsibility lies. Instead of asking only why an individual continues to gamble, a public health approach asks what makes harmful gambling more likely, who is exposed to those risks and what can be done to intervene before serious consequences emerge.

The foundation’s Taking Risks Wisely (TRW) programme reflects this preventive philosophy.

Simelane-Quntana said concerns about gambling behaviour can emerge much earlier than many people realise, with exposure and attitudes formed during childhood potentially carrying into adolescence and tertiary education.

“We are seeing that the appetite for gambling is being triggered in early childhood development,” stated Simelane-Quntana. “By the time these children reach tertiary education, they aren’t just experimenting; many are already actively experiencing severe gambling harm.”

The implication is significant. If harmful gambling patterns are allowed to develop over many years, universities and other institutions may simply inherit problems that began much earlier.

That is why prevention, she argues, must start early. The Foundation is expanding interventions while equipping teachers, healthcare professionals, student support personnel and community leaders with the knowledge to recognise warning signs and respond before gambling-related harm becomes more severe.

Challenging the normalisation of gambling

Another central concern is the growing normalisation of gambling, particularly among younger people. The increased visibility of betting in everyday life, coupled with marketing and digital accessibility, can make gambling appear less like a high-risk activity and more like an ordinary form of entertainment.

“Our aggressive push in public education is to dismantle how gambling is being normalised in our society. This normalisation creates a culture of acceptance among young children, making a high-risk activity look like a harmless everyday hobby,” Simelane-Quntana explained.

For Africa’s emerging gambling markets, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. As more countries develop sophisticated betting and gaming industries, they have the chance to incorporate responsible-gambling safeguards at the foundation of those markets instead of waiting until widespread harm becomes visible.

“Harm reduction should be approached from a public health perspective, recognising that gambling-related harm extends beyond the individual. Gambling harm affects families, communities and the broader economy,” she said. “Prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery support should be integrated into the gambling ecosystem from the onset, rather than introduced only once harm has become evident.”

That approach represents a significant departure from the familiar call for individuals to “gamble responsibly”.

From responsible gambling to punter protection

For Simelane-Quntana, the emphasis needs to shift from responsibility placed primarily on the gambler to protection built into the gambling environment.

“Our priority should not simply be encouraging individuals to gamble responsibly,” Simelane-Quntana noted. “Our priority should be punter protection.”

Such protection, she explained, requires regulators to establish effective consumer safeguards while operators incorporate responsible-gambling measures into product design, marketing practices and customer engagement.

It also requires better data. Reliable information about gambling behaviour can help regulators, researchers and operators identify emerging risks, determine which groups may be particularly vulnerable and assess whether interventions are actually reducing harm.

But regulation and industry participation must not come at the expense of independent research.

The foundation works with operators, regulators and responsible-gambling organisations, while its legislative mandate under South Africa’s National Gambling Act allows it to undertake objective research and provide evidence-based recommendations while maintaining its independence.

For Simelane-Quntana, the ultimate test is not whether organisations can demonstrate compliance on paper, but whether gambling environments are genuinely safer for consumers.

“It is unrealistic to expect individuals to consistently regulate their behaviour in an environment specifically designed to encourage continued play,” she said.

That raises a broader question for Africa’s gambling industry: should success be measured by how well consumers are told to control themselves, or by how effectively the system protects them? The answer increasingly appears to favour the latter.

The invisible population

Perhaps the most compelling reason for a public health approach is that many people experiencing gambling-related harm never appear in treatment statistics.

“The people who come forward to seek counselling or treatment are only the visible tip of the iceberg,” Simelane-Quntana said.

Some individuals who interact with support services may initially contact them over account-related questions or concerns about their betting activity rather than openly identifying themselves as needing treatment.

Those interactions, however, can provide valuable opportunities for early intervention. A seemingly routine enquiry may offer a chance to identify vulnerability, provide information and connect someone with appropriate support before the situation escalates.

“Beneath the surface lies a much larger and often invisible population—individuals who are struggling in silence, who may not recognise the extent of their gambling-related harm, who are reluctant to seek help because of stigma, or who simply do not know that support is available,” added Simelane-Quntana.

That hidden population underscores why prevention cannot depend solely on people recognising a problem and voluntarily seeking help.

A continental opportunity

Africa’s gambling industry is evolving rapidly. With the growth of mobile betting, digital payments and increasingly accessible gaming platforms, the continent is developing gambling markets that can reach consumers at unprecedented speed.

That growth creates economic opportunities, but it also makes the question of consumer protection more urgent.

The lesson from South Africa is that responsible gambling cannot be treated as an afterthought. Prevention, education, early identification, treatment and recovery support need to develop alongside the industry itself.

For policymakers, that means designing regulations that anticipate harm. For operators, it means embedding safeguards into products and customer interactions. For communities and educators, it means recognising the signs of harmful gambling early. For the public, it means understanding that gambling harm can extend far beyond the individual gambler.

The conversation, therefore, is no longer simply about whether individuals should gamble responsibly. It is about whether the systems surrounding gambling are designed responsibly.

As Africa’s gambling markets mature, shifting from blame to prevention—and from individual responsibility to meaningful punter protection—could prove critical to ensuring that industry growth does not come at the expense of public wellbeing.