The gambling industry has come out guns blazing against a Treasury proposal to mitigate the socioeconomic harm of online gambling by imposing a 20% tax, saying the tax would threaten jobs, encourage illegal gambling and have the opposite effect to what was intended.
The National Treasury’s draft discussion paper, released for public comment until January 30, proposes the tax as a response to the growth of online gambling and its social impact — including gambling addiction.
There has been a surge in gambling in recent years, with the number of distressed gamblers seeking help increasing sevenfold in the past year. South Africans spent more than R4bn a day gambling and gaming platforms raked in R75bn in gross revenue on turnover of R1.5-trillion in financial 2024.
Alarm has also been raised at the exponential rise of illegal online gambling sites that are cashing in on the bonanza. It is estimated that illegal online gambling sites operating from offshore tax havens such as Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, Curacao and Malta suck in more than R50bn in gross gaming revenue annually from South Africa.
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