Rosa Naudé-Potgieter
Abstract
The gambling industry in South Africa is thriving, with billions of Rands of revenues generated annually. In the recent years, the National Gambling Board (NGB) instituted an additional opportunity for smaller businesses such as taverns, shebeens, hotels and restaurants to include a gambling component in their business offerings. Limited-Payout Machine (LPMs) have grown substantially, with over 15 800 LPMs active throughout South Africa (NGB 2024b), but very little is known about the sector. Therefore, this study aims to understand the development of the LPM sector better by doing a scoping literature analysis from a South African perspective and identifying other countries that may have similar cases. During the literature review, it has become evident that there is barely any academic literature on LPMs, and other sources such as government publications, news reports, and websites must be utilised. This paper makes various recommendations of future studies that can be conducted to learn more about the emerging LPM sector with specific reference being made to research conducted in other countries that would need to be investigated from an African perspective.