When Nkosinathi Radebe gave a stranger a lift to a shopping centre in 2022, he had no idea the conversation that followed would change the course of his life.
That conversation led him to a path of gambling addiction that stuck very quickly and led him a path of loss and depression.
The 27-year-old from KwaZulu-Natal is among the 2,670 young people who sought help for gambling addiction through the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation during the last financial year.
His addiction began after the passenger told him how he had turned just R5 into R100 through online gambling.
He also gave Nkosinathi the names of the gambling sites, and when he arrived home he went straight to them.
He initially played with amounts ranging from R20 and R50 and won as much as R700. “That gave me the momentum to keep going back because I kept winning.”
But the winning streak ended, and soon he was borrowing money from friends after losing everything. “I would borrow about R200 from different people almost every week,” he said.
His addiction quickly spiralled.
One incident still haunts him. “My family gave me R2,000 to pay towards a R10,000 furniture lay-by that was for me, but I withdrew the money and gambled it. Afterwards, I lied and said I had paid. I was constantly walking on eggshells because I knew I had to replace that money.”
Every rand he received went back into gambling as he desperately tried to recover his losses. “Even when my family sent me money for groceries, I would gamble part of it hoping to win everything back.”
His family eventually discovered the truth and settled the lay-by themselves, but he continued gambling despite mounting debts. “Sometimes I would win R3,000, but instead of stopping I wanted more. Then I would lose everything again.”
Hoping a fresh start would help, his family sent him to Johannesburg to find work and it was there that his addiction worsened.
Within three months, every salary he earned had disappeared into online gambling. “My landlord complained because I hadn’t paid rent. My family got tired of cleaning up my mess and eventually told me to resign and come back home,” said Radebe.
The emotional toll became unbearable. “I was stressed and depressed. My family had lost all trust in me, but they still showed up for me.”
Realising he could not stop on his own, Radebe contacted the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF) and applied to have gambling websites blocked on his phone.
Today, Radebe’s counselling sessions have reduced to once every six months. “I’m doing so much better now. I’m enjoying my job and my money instead of gambling it away. I’m rebuilding the trust I lost with my family,” he said.
Looking back, he says gambling’s biggest deception is convincing people they are in control. “It makes you believe you’ll solve your problems, but gambling takes everything from you. It hooks you by letting you win at first, but you can never build anything through gambling.”
*Not his real name