Africa Can Build Player Protection Before Market Outgrows It - THISDAYLIVE

As Africa’s gambling market expands, the continent faces a growing need for player protection grounded in local evidence, research, and social realities rather than frameworks imported from other jurisdictions. The continent has an opportunity to build stronger systems alongside its rapidly evolving gambling markets. GAMINGWEEK collaborates with Gamble Aware NG through its Safer Gaming for Africa newsletter to highlight conversations and insights shaping responsible gambling and player protection across the continent

By 2032, Africa’s gambling market is projected to hit $11.3 billion, almost doubling its $6.1 billion valuation in 2023. The rapid growth is influenced by factors such as the availability of tech infrastructure, access to reasonably priced tech gadgets, a surging youth population, operators’ presence in the media and, arguably, the economy, whether it is performing or not.

Alongside this growth are the risks that accompany every gambling market: problem gambling and irresponsible financial decisions, leaving a significant gap to fill in terms of player protection. While stakeholders acknowledge the importance of reinforcing player protection, the infrastructure needed to balance growth lags.

In a chat with the Director of Research and Education at the International Centre for Responsible Gaming (ICRG), Dr Travis Sztainert noted distinct characteristics of the African market when assessing player protection.

“The first thing I would emphasise is that there really isn’t a single ‘African gambling market’. We are talking about more than 50 countries with very different regulatory systems, cultures, economies, gambling products, research capacities, and levels of market development,” he said.

Sztainert’s response made clear that while research into sports betting, youth gambling, gambling disorder and gambling-related harms is ongoing across the continent, the evidence base remains considerably smaller than that available in Europe, Australia and North America. Existing reviews, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa, have also highlighted the growth of gambling alongside significant gaps in locally generated evidence.

With that established, protecting players in Africa requires understanding the fundamentals needed to build frameworks that strengthen protection through holistic market research. This goes beyond lifting models from other jurisdictions and applying them to Africa, a continent with different socioeconomic standings and diverse cultures.

“Without research, player protection can very easily become a collection of things that sound sensible rather than things we know actually work,” Sztainert warned.

“There is an important distinction between implementing a responsible gambling measure and demonstrating that the measure changes behaviour or reduces harm. A message may be seen by millions of people, for example, but that does not necessarily mean it changed anyone’s behaviour,” added Sztainert. “A responsible gambling tool can exist on a platform, but that tells us very little about who uses it, whether they use it effectively, or whether it improves outcomes.”

On prioritising research, Sztainert said, “It can tell us which interventions work, which do not, for whom they work, when they should be delivered, and whether there are unintended consequences. It can also help us move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to player protection. So, in essence, strong research is the foundation for making player protection more precise, effective, and accountable.”

One approach often taken in player protection focuses on perceived harm among players. This risks making player protection reactive rather than proactive, particularly when interventions are triggered only after harm becomes apparent.

“One of the most important shifts has been recognising that gambling harm exists on a continuum. We should not wait until someone meets the diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder before we become concerned. Financial, psychological, relationship, and other harms can occur well before that point, and harms can also extend to families and communities.

“That has important implications for player protection. We need universal approaches that help all players make informed decisions, targeted interventions for people showing signs of increasing risk, and effective treatment for those experiencing more serious problems,” Sztainert explained.

Understanding that gambling harm isn’t entirely about the individual, but also about the environment that they find themselves in, is key to understanding player protection. This shifts the focus to other factors around product design and accessibility, including where advertising and marketing are directed, the ease of payment solutions without restrictions, the normalisation of gambling among young people, and gambling availability.

Prioritising just the player when they start experiencing serious problems, or simply assigning them the blame, presents a lopsided approach that never truly aims to fully tackle problem gambling, while allowing more time for people to advance towards problem gambling because their behaviour isn’t yet identified as a problem.

Inarguably, the environment a player finds themselves in is unique; thus, importing player protection frameworks developed in external environments would not necessarily be effective. The more sustainable option is for Africa to build its own player protection frameworks.

Sztainert believes this should begin with building the research and player-protection capacity needed to allow policies and practices to develop alongside the continent’s growing gambling markets, noting, “The opportunity is to build research and player-protection capacity alongside growing markets, so that policy and practice can evolve with the evidence.”

This, he argued, does not mean completely discarding lessons from other jurisdictions, but rather understanding how gambling interacts with the realities of African societies before adopting protection measures. He pointed to differences in culture, economies, communities, payment systems and social conditions as factors that should inform how such frameworks are developed.

“And importantly, I don’t think the goal should simply be to import responsible gambling models developed in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia,” Sztainert stated. “We need to understand how gambling fits within local cultures, economies, communities, payment systems, and social conditions, and build player-protection strategies from that evidence.”

He sees this approach not only as a way for Africa to address its existing gaps, but as an opportunity to develop models that could influence player protection beyond the continent.

Sztainert said, “Having said that, Africa has an opportunity to be the leader in player protection by building systems that prioritise it from the start.”

Beyond developing locally relevant frameworks, Sztainert said African markets need the capacity to measure gambling behaviour and properly understand where harm is occurring.

He called for reliable prevalence, surveillance and longitudinal research, alongside greater investment in African researchers, universities, clinicians and research institutions to build a sustainable local evidence base.

Africa’s rapidly developing gambling markets may therefore present an opportunity to build player protection into the industry’s growth, rather than treating it as a response to problems that have already emerged.

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