{"id":52797,"date":"2026-03-15T17:15:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T17:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52797"},"modified":"2026-03-15T17:15:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T17:15:03","slug":"op-ed-playing-the-odds-how-covid-flipped-south-africas-gambling-industry-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/15\/op-ed-playing-the-odds-how-covid-flipped-south-africas-gambling-industry-overnight\/","title":{"rendered":"OP-ED: PLAYING THE ODDS: How Covid flipped South Africa\u2019s gambling industry overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>In March 2020, regular casino visitors across South Africa (SA) faced an abrupt change. Lockdown restrictions closed every casino in the country. These gamblers, suddenly confined to their homes, turned to their phones and downloaded betting apps like Betway and Hollywoodbets. Five years later, most of them haven\u2019t returned to casinos.<\/p>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#OPED #PLAYING #ODDS #Covid #flipped #South #Africas #gambling #industry #overnight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March 2020, regular casino visitors across South Africa (SA) faced an abrupt change. Lockdown restrictions closed every casino in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52798,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52797\/revisions\/52798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}