South Africa's gambling revenues projected to rise in 2019

Gross gambling revenues in South Africa posted their second-largest annual increase over the past five years, with casinos taking the largest share of this growth by rising 4.5% over the prior year.

Overall, gross gambling revenues in South Africa rose by R2.1 billion in 2014. South African gross gambling revenues across most sectors of the market(excluding the National Lottery), are expected to expand from R23.9 billion in 2014 to R30.3 billion in 2019, a 4.8% compound annual increase.

These are some of the highlights from PwC’s fourth annual edition on the gaming industry entitled ‘Taking the odds: Gambling outlook for 2015 - 2019 (South Africa – Nigeria – Kenya)’.

Pietro Calicchio, Gambling Industry Leader for PwC South Africa, said: “Overall, the South African gambling industry continues to remain a vibrant and exciting sector, but is facing significant challenges, in particular a slowing economic climate and changes in regulation. An issue of particular concern to the casino segment is that of illegal online gambling. In addition, certain casinos are also facing competition from other gambling facilities opening up in their catchment areas. We anticipate slower economic growth to lead to slower growth in gross casino gambling revenues in South Africa and Nigeria, while Kenya’s casinos will face increasing competition from legal online and mobile gambling.”

In the three market regions as a whole, gross casino gambling revenues will total an estimated R19.9 billion (USD1.8 billion) in 2019, a 2% compound annual increase on the R18 billion (USD1.7 billion) in 2014.