Western Cape bets on city centre casino

23 Apr 2012

The Western Cape provincial government is betting that moving one of the province's five casinos to the centre of Cape Town will help stimulate tourism by attracting international high rollers.

Thursday, April 20, was the last day that public comment could be submitted to a change in the provincial law that governs gambling in the Western Cape.

In terms of national legislation the province may only have five casinos most of which are located outside the main Cape metropolitan area.

One casino, Grand West, which is owned by Sun International is located in the northern Cape Town suburb of Goodwood. That exclusivity license expired in 2010.

The other casinos are situated in the west coast town of Langebaan and at Caledon, Mossel Bay and Worcester.

Should the law be changed then, these casinos will be able to move to the city center for a 10-year period. However, an exact site has not been identified yet.

Western Cape MEC Alan Winde said that should a casino be approved for relocation to the Cape Town Metro, it had the potential to increase the desirability of the city as a tourist destination, increase tax revenue and improve the livelihoods of all those living in the Western Cape.

"It will also create new jobs, which is our first strategic objective. If one of the outlying casinos moves to the metro, they have a responsibility to minimise the impact on job losses in their current region," he said.

Cheree Dyers, an analyst with Prescient Securities said Sun International had already indicated that a second casino in Cape Town would affect its business.

"Their management have made comments to that effect. However, we don't yet know what the detail of a possible new casino would be. For instance what target market they are looking at, and so on," she said.

Sun International management did not responded to calls, but it was understood that they had delivered their comment on the proposed license.

In 2010, Grand West Casino paid about R120 million in various taxes to the Western Cape provincial government.

Dyers said that while gambling in its various forms was considered a money-spinner for government and associated industries such as hotels, and remained popular, the general industry consensus was that it had reached a plateau within Africa.

"During tough economic times gambling revenue drops off. Whether or not a new casino in Cape Town may stimulate the economy as much as the government hopes would have to be seen," Dyers said.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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