Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba calls for ban on gambling

Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has called for a ban, or at least strict restrictions, on gambling, warning that online betting is destroying lives.

He made the plea during an Easter sermon in Cape Town over the weekend.

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Makgoba said that according to the National Treasury, South Africa’s annual betting revenue has skyrocketed by 390% in the past five years.

It went from around R10.6 billion to R52 billion, with online betting alone generating an estimated R44 billion a year.

Makgoba said at a recent meeting of Anglican bishops from across southern Africa shared troubling stories of pensioners gambling away their South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grants.

He said they also hear of students squandering financial aid, graduates borrowing money to gamble in the hope of earning a living, and young people driven to suicide after losing everything.

Makgoba said this just shows how serious the problem has become.

“We need to treat gambling the way we dealt with smoking and alcohol and seriously consider banning or at least imposing strict restrictions on gambling advertising.”

The archbishop stressed that the social crisis caused by harmful gambling must be urgently addressed by both government and civil society.