Gaming for Africa Magazine - Issue 144 (June/July 2019)

A Response to Since its establishment, the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF) has acted as a comprehensive industry response to the challenges posed by problem gambling in the country.

“SARG operated as a trust in the period before 2009, with the main focus being to implement National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP), which was launched as a comprehensive industry response to the challenges posed by problem gambling in a developing nation such as South Africa, after the legalisation of gambling in mid1996,” explains Sibongile Simelane-Quntana, the Executive Director.

“At its inception, it took the form of a national programme with a set of activities that integrated treatment and counselling, public awareness, education, training and research; and it remains globally recognised as the first national initiative to integrate these various components coherently, with the understanding that it is maximally cost effective to have a single, national programme covering all forms of gambling,” she adds.

The mission and vision Simelane-Quntana says the foundation’s vision is to create a responsible gambling environment through accessible programmes that manage and minimise the potentially harmful effects of gambling in the country.

Their mission is to grow awareness of responsible gambling and to ensure that the potential negative and harmful effects of gambling are managed and minimised, through an integrated and well-managed programme of: • Research, advocacy and stakeholder mobilisation; • Comprehensive treatment and counselling; and • Problem gambling prevention.

• Responsible gambling defined Simelane-Quntana explains that responsible gambling is when the gambling activity is a harmless and recreational, which does not take more time or money on gambling than one can comfortably afford.

“A responsible gambler is one who typically determines beforehand what they consider to be acceptable losses. By and large, their gambling activities cause little harm to themselves or their loved ones and their behaviour is associated with minimal guilt.

“They simply require information and education on gambling behaviour to enable them to make sensible decisions and remain harm free,” she elaborates.

Problem gambling can have severe consequences and not only does it have a negative effect on the gambler, but also on the family, significant others and on the workplace.

“These are some of the effects of problem gambling on a punter: depression, suicidal thoughts, anger and anxiety, financial and emotional depletion, and so forth,” she explains.

The National Responsible Gambling Programme The SARGF’s flagship programme, NRGP, which was launched in June 2000, has successfully treated 18 500 patients to date.

The NRGP has various programmes—The Support and Mentoring Programme/ Industry Support Programme, 20 I Gaming For Africa I June / July 2019