Slowdown bites into gambling

Johannesburg - Growth in income from gaming activities in South Africa has tapered off in keeping with economic growth, and has probably already begun to decline.

Professor Peter Collins, executive director of the National Programme for Responsible Gambling in South Africa, says that in 2008 the gaming industry made an estimated R20bn to R22bn (calculated from sums wagered minus those paid out).

He says the income has remained very stable compared with the year before, and expects it to now decline with the impact of the recession.

About R15.6bn of the total was generated by the casinos alone. Compared to an income of R15bn in 2007, this reflected minimal growth, especially when one considers the good growth in income in previous years - in 2005 it was R11bn.

Collins says gambling generally mirrors trends in retail sales and leisure-time activities. Just as people are less frequently patronising restaurants and theatres, they are visiting casinos less often as well.

It's a myth that people are more inclined to gamble in times of economic hardship. He reckons only a small handful of individuals do so.

A fourth survey has recently been done in South Arica on participation in gaming activities and problem gambling. The survey was based on information collected in 2008.

Collins says what is particularly striking is that a significant number of South Africans who had previously faithfully participated in the national lottery (Lotto) stopped buying tickets after sales were interrupted from March to October 2007, after which the new operator, Gidani, took over.

This fall-off has had a big impact on the statistics of people gambling locally.

A previous study in 2005 found that 70% of the adult South African population could be classified as regular gamblers - in other words, they took part in gambling activities one or more times a month.

But half of these people basically only played the lottery, says Collins.

Therefore the number of people regarded as regular gamblers has since fallen to 50%, with 35% taking part in the lottery alone.

"Another interesting point is that those people considered problem cases are relatively few (and remain basically unchanged)," he observes.

Less than 5% are problem cases, while less than 1% can be classified as addicted to gambling.

Collins explains that, although the government is doing good work towards making legal gambling safe, huge danger resides in the illegal activities.

Although internet gambling has so far not been legalised in this country, many people are playing on international websites. The has caused a loss of revenue for local gaming operators and consequently less tax revenue from gambling for the government.

- Sake24.com

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