Archbishop of the Anglican Church says growing despair driving many South Africans to gambling

Archbishop of the Anglican Church Thabo Makgoba-said that growing despair has driven many South Africans to turn to gambling as a means of survival.

In his Christmas sermon at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, Makgoba said that gambling has become a form of economic self-medication in a society offering little opportunity.

He pointed to unemployment, poverty, and inequality as key drivers behind the rise in betting and problem gambling.

The archbishop warned that the trend reflects a deeper crisis of hope, linked to failures in governance and economic leadership.

"Despair now defines much of South African life. Just one of the consequences of this is that gambling has, to use his words, become a form of economic self-medication,  a desperate search for luck in a society that offers no opportunity.

Makgoba also turned his focus to the socio-politics of the Western world, saying inequality has left many feeling excluded and powerless with rise of extreme right-wing ideologies.

"Men and women in the world's most powerful and prosperous economies are just as much the victims of the greed of self-serving elites who wield economic and political power for their own benefits as the poor in the South. The devastating consequences of inequality and hoarding of power and resources for the benefit of a few have given rise to extreme right-wing parties."