African Responsible Gaming Network Launches to Count Gambling Harm

Responsible gambling charities, researchers and treatment specialists from across the continent have joined one body, whose first tasks are a pan-African harm report and a directory of where players can get help.

Francis Gable

21/09/26 · 1 minSeptember 21, 2026 · 1 min read

Responsible gambling groups from across Africa launched a single continental body on Sept. 21, with a count of the harm gambling does at the top of its agenda.

The money is already counted. South African players staked R1.5 trillion (about $86 billion) in the year to March 31, 2025, the country's National Gambling Board reported, three-quarters of it on betting. How many people that money is hurting is not counted anywhere.

Network Puts a Harm Report First

The African Responsible Gaming Network (ARGN) gathers treatment specialists, researchers and national charities that until now worked market by market, according to multiple industry reports. Its president is Lebo Seoheng, who runs advocacy and communications at the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation.

Founding members include GamblePause Initiative Africa, the Nigerian charity behind a free gambling rehabilitation center in Lagos. The network has given itself four jobs: a pan-African report on gambling harm, a directory of treatment and recovery services, policy advice for regulators and awareness campaigns that can run in several countries at once.

It will press for common principles rather than identical regulations, since African countries license gambling differently.

Britain shows what that job looks like finished. Its regulator surveys more than 20,000 adults a year, and the 2025 edition put the problem gambling rate at 2.4%. Africa has no equivalent number.

Network Says It Will Not Replace Regulators

"ARGN is not here to replace national organisations or regulators. Its purpose is to support and strengthen the work already being done."

That is Ladipo Abiose Akolade, who founded GamblePause.

The alliance has said that week will run every year. ARGN has not said when its harm report or its treatment directory will appear, or which countries its members cover.

Treat gambling as entertainment you pay for. 18+, and if it stops feeling like entertainment, help exists at BeGambleAware and GamCare.