ActionSA is deeply concerned by reports that some students at tertiary education institutions are using their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances to gamble on online betting platforms.
This is a tragic reflection of how government’s failures are driving young South Africans to desperation. Instead of providing opportunities for growth and development, the GNU’s lack of direction has left many students wagering their futures for fleeting hope.
According to a Daily Maverick investigation, students across universities are betting their study and living allowances on platforms such as Betway, Hollywoodbets, and Sportbet, often becoming indebted, dropping out, and facing harassment from lenders and peers. Behind this tragedy is a government that has abandoned its responsibility to protect vulnerable youth from predatory online gambling and digital advertising that normalises addiction.
This crisis is compounded by the NSFAS’s ongoing failure to pay student allowances on time, or at all, forcing thousands into financial precarity. Student evictions earlier this year due to NSFAS disbursement errors have left students without food or shelter. It is in this environment of chaos and hopelessness that online gambling becomes a dangerous escape for young people struggling to survive.
Two in five South Africans aged 25-34 cannot find work, while the unemployment rate among university graduates younger than 35 has reached almost 24%. The failure of the GNU to stimulate inclusive economic growth has robbed young South Africans of opportunity, leaving gambling and “quick wins” as the only perceived way out. This social despair is mirrored in national spending patterns, with Stats SA confirming that 54.5% of all household spending in the recreation, sport and culture category now goes to gambling, more than all other categories combined.
This growing addiction takes root far earlier than tertiary level. Across the country, illegal street-corner gambling has become common in primary school neighbourhoods, normalising a culture of betting from childhood. For ActionSA, this is a collective failure, one that involves the National Gambling Board, the Department of Social Development, and the South African Police Service, all of whom have turned a blind eye to illegal gambling that exploits the poor.
ActionSA therefore calls on the Minister of Higher Education and Training to urgently convene a multi-departmental task team with the National Gambling Board and Department of Social Development to address this escalating crisis. This must include regulating online gambling advertising and influencer promotions, expanding financial literacy campaigns at schools and tertiary institutions, and ensuring NSFAS allowances reach students on time and are used as intended.
Until government acts decisively, South Africa will continue to lose a generation of young people, not just to unemployment, but to the false hope sold by an unregulated online gambling industry.
Students Gambling Their NSFAS Allowances Away Another Indictment on Youth’s Future Under GNU
ActionSA is deeply concerned by reports that some students at tertiary education institutions are using their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances to gamble on online betting platforms.
This is a tragic reflection of how government’s failures are driving young South Africans to desperation. Instead of providing opportunities for growth and development, the GNU’s lack of direction has left many students wagering their futures for fleeting hope.
According to a Daily Maverick investigation, students across universities are betting their study and living allowances on platforms such as Betway, Hollywoodbets, and Sportbet, often becoming indebted, dropping out, and facing harassment from lenders and peers. Behind this tragedy is a government that has abandoned its responsibility to protect vulnerable youth from predatory online gambling and digital advertising that normalises addiction.
This crisis is compounded by the NSFAS’s ongoing failure to pay student allowances on time, or at all, forcing thousands into financial precarity. Student evictions earlier this year due to NSFAS disbursement errors have left students without food or shelter. It is in this environment of chaos and hopelessness that online gambling becomes a dangerous escape for young people struggling to survive.
Two in five South Africans aged 25-34 cannot find work, while the unemployment rate among university graduates younger than 35 has reached almost 24%. The failure of the GNU to stimulate inclusive economic growth has robbed young South Africans of opportunity, leaving gambling and “quick wins” as the only perceived way out. This social despair is mirrored in national spending patterns, with Stats SA confirming that 54.5% of all household spending in the recreation, sport and culture category now goes to gambling, more than all other categories combined.
This growing addiction takes root far earlier than tertiary level. Across the country, illegal street-corner gambling has become common in primary school neighbourhoods, normalising a culture of betting from childhood. For ActionSA, this is a collective failure, one that involves the National Gambling Board, the Department of Social Development, and the South African Police Service, all of whom have turned a blind eye to illegal gambling that exploits the poor.
ActionSA therefore calls on the Minister of Higher Education and Training to urgently convene a multi-departmental task team with the National Gambling Board and Department of Social Development to address this escalating crisis. This must include regulating online gambling advertising and influencer promotions, expanding financial literacy campaigns at schools and tertiary institutions, and ensuring NSFAS allowances reach students on time and are used as intended.
Until government acts decisively, South Africa will continue to lose a generation of young people, not just to unemployment, but to the false hope sold by an unregulated online gambling industry.