If you only read one line: free, confidential counselling is available in South Africa around the clock on 0800 006 008, or send a please-call-me to 076 675 0710. It costs nothing, you don’t need medical aid, and family members can call about their own situation without the person gambling being involved. The National Responsible Gambling Programme is funded through the gambling industry under a levy on its revenue — which is to say, you have already paid for it.
You don’t need a diagnosis to make that call. “I’m not sure this is normal any more” is a good enough reason.
The signs that actually matter
Nobody can diagnose a gambling disorder from a checklist, including this page. What follows is not a test to score. It’s a set of patterns that clinicians and helplines see repeatedly, useful mainly for putting language to something you may already suspect.
Money patterns
- Betting with money set aside for something else — rent, school fees, groceries, a policy premium.
- Chasing losses: increasing stakes to recover what’s gone, rather than betting to a plan.
- Borrowing to gamble, or gambling with borrowed money you were meant to use for something else.
- Selling things, taking out credit, or moving money between accounts to cover the gap.
- Not knowing how much you’ve lost this month, and not wanting to work it out.
Behaviour patterns
- Betting longer or larger than you intended, repeatedly, despite deciding beforehand not to.
- Trying to stop or cut down and not managing it.
- Hiding the extent of it — deleting messages, clearing history, being vague when asked.
- Gambling to change how you feel, rather than for entertainment.
- Restlessness or irritability when you can’t bet.
Life patterns
- Lying to people who matter to you about money or time.
- Work, studies, sleep or relationships slipping.
- Relief when you gamble; dread afterwards.
One of these occasionally is not a crisis. Several of them, or one that keeps recurring and is getting worse, is a reason to talk to someone. The pattern that most often signals real trouble is the combination of chasing losses and hiding it — because between them they remove both the financial brake and the social one.
What the help actually is
People avoid the helpline because they imagine a lecture. It isn’t that.
- It’s free. The counselling sessions cost nothing. There’s no fee and no medical aid requirement.
- It’s confidential. You are not reported to anyone.
- It’s available at any hour, which matters, because the worst moment is rarely during office hours.
- It’s for families too. Partners, parents and siblings can call for guidance about their own position — you do not need the gambler’s permission to ask for support.
- It refers to treatment where that’s appropriate, rather than being a single phone call and nothing else.
You can also email helpline@responsiblegambling.org.za or start at responsiblegambling.org.za if a phone call feels like too much today. Sending an email counts. Do the version you’ll actually do.
If it’s someone else
Watching this happen to someone is its own kind of hard, and the instinct to fix it by managing their money usually backfires.
Things that tend to help:
- Protect yourself first. Separate your finances where you can. This is not disloyalty; it is the thing that keeps a household afloat while the other person gets help.
- Stop covering the losses. Paying off gambling debts repeatedly removes the consequence that eventually motivates change. This is brutally hard advice to follow and it is still the advice.
- Talk about behaviour, not character. “I’ve noticed you’ve been betting most nights and I’m worried” lands differently to “you have a problem.”
- Call the helpline yourself. For you. They support family members, and you’re allowed to need that.
Things that don’t help: ultimatums you won’t enforce, searching their phone, and trying to win the argument. None of it addresses what’s driving the behaviour.
The practical first move
If the signs above look familiar, the highest-value action isn’t a resolution — it’s removing access, because willpower at 11pm is a poor security system.
Self-exclusion is a formal request that stops a licensed operator from letting you bet for a set period, arranged through the operator or your provincial gambling board. It’s free, and the counselling runs alongside it. Here’s the step-by-step process, including the part most people get wrong — South Africa has no single national register, so you exclude operator by operator.
Then deal with the money as a money problem, which it now is: how to get out of gambling debt.
⚠️ Scam warning
People looking for a way out are targeted, deliberately.
- Paid “gambling cure” programmes. The national helpline and its counselling are free. Anyone charging you to stop gambling is running a business on your worst month.
- “Recovery agents” offering to retrieve money lost to a betting site for an upfront fee. Always a scam.
- Systems, tipsters and prediction groups sold as the way to win it back. There is no system. Chasing losses through a paid subscription is the problem wearing a new outfit.
- Loans marketed at gamblers. Instant-approval credit advertised alongside betting content is designed to extend the loss, not solve it.
- Anyone who says one more big win fixes this. Including yourself, at 2am.
FAQ
Does calling the helpline cost anything?
No. The helpline is free and so is the counselling it provides. You don’t need medical aid.
Will anyone find out I called?
It’s confidential. That’s the basis on which the service operates.
Can my wife or my mother call about me?
Yes. The programme supports immediate family members, not only the person gambling, and they can call about their own situation.
Is gambling addiction a real medical condition?
Gambling disorder is a recognised condition, and it is treated. But you don’t need a formal diagnosis to ask for help — the helpline is there for people who are simply worried.
I only gamble on payday. Is that still a problem?
Frequency matters less than consequence and control. If payday betting is eating money committed elsewhere, or you can’t stop once you start, the frequency isn’t the reassuring part.
Where do I start if I’m not ready to talk to anyone?
Start with the access rather than the conversation: self-exclude, block the sites, and use the free download below. Then call when you’re ready.
Next step
Free download: The Stop Sheet — a self-exclusion request letter you can send today, the provincial gambling board contact list, a 30-day tracker and a card-block checklist. One email, no cost.
Related guides: How to Self-Exclude From Gambling in SA · How to Get Out of Gambling Debt · How to Budget in South Africa
How To South Africa does not accept gambling affiliate revenue and does not link to gambling operators. We are not affiliated with the National Responsible Gambling Programme, the National Gambling Board or any provincial licensing authority. Educational content, not medical advice — for diagnosis or treatment, speak to a doctor or a registered counsellor. Free, confidential support: 0800 006 008, any hour, or please-call-me to 076 675 0710. Last verified August 2026. Report an error