South Africa is the latest big market to crank up the pressure on online betting, with National Treasury floating a new 20% national tax on gross gambling revenue (GGR) from online wagering and interactive gambling. The levy would sit on top of existing provincial gambling taxes, pushing the effective rate on regulated online betting into the high-20s.
On paper, the move could add roughly R10 billion (about $580 million) a year to government coffers, but Treasury is framing it less as a cash-grab and more as a “sin tax” designed to curb problem gambling and social harm. The discussion paper points to an explosion in betting activity: around R1.1–1.5 trillion wagered in 2024/25 and participation jumping from about 30% of adults in 2017 to more than 60% by 2023, driven by cheap smartphones and heavy marketing.
For licensed sportsbooks and casino brands, the headline concern is margin pressure. Provincial taxes on online betting currently range from roughly 6% to 9% of GGR, so adding a flat 20% national layer would give South Africa a tax profile closer to high-duty markets like the UK, while still trying to stay below the levels that pushed Kenya’s market toward the shadows a few years back.
Sports betting was again by far the largest source of revenue in South Africa
Regulators argue that centralising the tax at national level and routing data straight to the South African Revenue Service will also tighten oversight of a market where illegal offshore operators still target local bettors at scale. Industry, meanwhile, is warning that if the total tax bite and compliance load get too heavy, sharper pricing and bigger bonuses from unlicensed books will pull action out of the regulated channel.
