Responsible Gambling

Betting should be fun. When it stops being fun, it is time to stop. This page tells you how to get help in South Africa, and how to shut your own betting down if you need to.

Get help now

Phone 0800 006 008. The National Responsible Gambling Programme helpline. Free to call, open 24 hours a day, every day.
WhatsApp 076 675 0710. Same programme, if you would rather type than talk.
Email helpline@responsiblegambling.org.za
Website: responsiblegambling.org.za

The counselling is free. You do not pay anything. It is run by the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation, which is funded by the gambling industry itself, the National Gambling Board and the provincial boards.

Warning signs

You do not have to be in trouble to ask for help. These are the things to watch for.

Betting money you need for something else. Rent, food, school fees, transport.
Chasing losses. Betting more to win back what you lost.
Borrowing to bet. From a bank, a lender, a friend or family.
Hiding it. Lying about how much you bet or how much you lost.
Betting to feel better. When you are stressed, angry or low.
Not being able to stop. You say you will stop and you do not.
It is hurting people around you. Fights at home about money or time.

If you read that list and recognised yourself, phone 0800 006 008. It costs nothing and nobody is going to judge you.

How to stop yourself betting

South Africa has a legal self-exclusion system. It is not a promise you make to yourself. It is a register that bookmakers have to check.

Where to apply. Through your provincial gambling board, or through any gambling operator’s security department. The National Responsible Gambling Programme runs free self-exclusion sessions to help you do it.
What you fill in. Form NGB1/1, with a recent colour photograph.
How long it takes. The National Gambling Board must record it and send it to every operator and provincial authority within five working days. Your exclusion starts 10 days after you submit the form.
How long it lasts. Six months as standard.
Getting it lifted. After six months, and only with evidence that you have been to counselling with an NRGP treatment professional.
If you bet anyway. The form says any winnings during your exclusion can be taken off you. You can also be refused entry and charged with trespassing.

This is in the National Gambling Act 7 of 2004, section 14, and the regulations under it. It was updated in February 2026.

Tools inside the betting apps

Every licensed South African bookmaker has to give you ways to control your own account. Look in your account settings for these.

Deposit limits. A cap on what you can put in per day, week or month.
Time reminders. A message telling you how long you have been playing.
Account closure. You can shut the account yourself.
Self-exclusion with that bookmaker. Separate from the national register, and quicker to start.

Set a deposit limit before you need one. It is much easier to set a limit on a calm Tuesday than after a bad Saturday.

Data free removes one of your old limits

This site is about betting without using data. That is useful. It also removes one of the things that used to stop people, which was running out of data.

If your data running out was the thing that made you stop, you now need a different limit. Use the deposit limits in the app. Decide what you will lose before you start.

Rules that protect you

You must be 18. Section 12 of the National Gambling Act. A bookmaker must take reasonable steps to check your age.
Adverts cannot target you if you are under 18, and they cannot be placed in media aimed at under 18s, or on displays aimed at schools and campuses.
Adverts cannot promise you will win, present betting as a way out of money trouble, or suggest it is a way to earn a living. That is regulation 3 of the National Gambling Regulations.
Every gambling advert must carry a warning about addictive and compulsive gambling, with the National Responsible Gambling Programme’s name, toll-free number and slogan.

For family and friends

You can phone 0800 006 008 about someone else. The programme deals with families as well as gamblers, and the counselling is still free.

You can also ask about excluding a family member. Section 14 of the Act allows for it. Ask the helpline or your provincial gambling board how it works.

Never bet with money you need

Decide the amount before you open the app. When it is gone, you are done for the day.
Never borrow to bet.
Do not bet to fix a money problem. It makes it worse. That is why the law bans adverts that suggest otherwise.
Take the loss. Chasing it is how a bad day becomes a bad month.
Keep other things in your week. If betting is the only thing you look forward to, that is the warning.

South African law sets the gambling age at 18. Compulsive gambling causes real harm, and help is free and confidential. Winners know when to stop. National Responsible Gambling Programme: 0800 006 008, WhatsApp 076 675 0710.