{"id":33511,"date":"2026-09-17T09:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=33511"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:32:53","slug":"softswiss-survey-2026-exposes-a-gap-in-south-africas-player-protection-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/softswiss-survey-2026-exposes-a-gap-in-south-africas-player-protection-demands","title":{"rendered":"SOFTSWISS survey 2026 exposes a gap in South Africa&#8217;s player protection demands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey examines South African adults\u2019 expectations around responsible gambling tools and player protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Press release.- A new survey of 1,000 South African adults commissioned by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/topics\/softswiss\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/topics\/softswiss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SOFTSWISS<\/a>\u00a0reveals a disconnect between personal financial pressures and player-protection expectations. The survey findings arrive shortly after\u00a0<strong>Africa Safer Gambling Week\u00a0<\/strong>(September 7\u201311), the continent\u2019s first coordinated player-protection campaign organised by the African iGaming Alliance under the banner<strong>\u00a0#PlaySafeAfrica<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unemployed South Africans represent the category most likely to say they would use a financial windfall to pay off debt, at 22.1 per cent. However, demand for spending-limit tools among such unemployed respondents drops to just 35.3 per cent, nearly eight percentage points below the overall average of 43.2 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey also covers attitudes towards underage gambling protection. Current bettors are more likely than people who have never used an online betting service to want stronger protection against underage gambling, 65.7 per cent against 54.5 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mariia Halaida<\/strong>, head of business development in Africa at SOFTSWISS, said: \u201cOperators usually hear from the customers who are already engaged enough to ask for something. This survey suggests that people who may have the greatest need for spending controls are not necessarily the ones most likely to ask for them. Responsible gambling tools such as deposit limits and self-exclusion are built into our platform to support regulatory requirements and safer gambling practices. The findings reinforce why we believe player protection requires a proactive approach, rather than relying solely on players themselves to request responsible gambling tools or safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The full findings, including methodology, margin of error and demographic breakdowns, will be set out in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/2027-igaming-trends-report-coming-in-two-weeks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SOFTSWISS<\/a>\u2018 full survey report, to be published in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Putting more focus on the African continent, SOFTSWISS is hosting a dedicated LinkedIn Live panel discussion exploring the financial landscape of entering African igaming sectors. Scheduled for 14:00 CET on September 23, the live session, titled \u201c<strong>Not a Cheap Bet: The Economics of Launch in the African iGaming Market<\/strong>\u201d, will feature expert insights from the Mpumalanga Economic Regulator, Jabula Bets, Legends Gaming and Management Solutions, alongside SOFTSWISS specialists, focusing on South African operations as a real-world benchmark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The survey examines South African adults\u2019 expectations around responsible gambling tools and player protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":33512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":true,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A SOFTSWISS-commissioned survey in South Africa reveals a critical disconnect between financially vulnerable adults and their stated demand for responsible gambling tools, highlighting the need for proactive player protection strategies. The findings, released post-Africa Safer Gambling Week, underscore that operators cannot solely rely on player-initiated requests for safeguards like spending limits. SOFTSWISS emphasizes its platform's integrated tools and is hosting a panel on African iGaming market entry economics.","focusai_entities":"SOFTSWISS, Mariia Halaida, African iGaming Alliance, Mpumalanga Economic Regulator, Jabula Bets, Legends Gaming and Management Solutions","focusai_location":"South Africa, Africa","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), product_ux (0.8), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.8), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (1.0), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Proactive RG Frameworks","query":"How might regulators and B2C operators collaborate to implement proactive responsible gambling frameworks that effectively reach financially vulnerable player segments, moving beyond reliance on player-initiated tool adoption?"},{"label":"African Market Entry","query":"What specific regulatory and operational challenges, particularly concerning player protection and responsible gambling compliance, should B2B suppliers and B2C operators anticipate when entering the South African iGaming market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60018,60011],"tags":[2279],"class_list":["post-33511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-partner-news","category-south-africa","tag-softswiss","press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33515,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33511\/revisions\/33515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}