GAMING FOR AFRICA The Sun King cashes in his chips
Sol Kerzner, founder of the Southern Sun hotel group, Sun International and Kerzner International, has died of cancer at the age of 84. Kerzner was a titan of the hotel and casino industry who redefined the scale and scope of integrated destination resorts worldwide. The son of Russian immigrants, Kerzner was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1935. The youngest of four and the only son, he was a working class boy from a rough neighbourhood but he would grow up to become one of the most influential entrepreneurs in
Emerald welcomes new VIP manager
Emerald Resort & Casino is pleased to announce that Beveley Naidoo has been appointed to the position of VIP Manager. Naidoo has for the last 11 years occupied the position of VIP Executive Hostess at various casinos around the country and now assumes
the responsibility of VIP Manager at Emerald Resort & Casino in the Vaal. She will be focusing on the future development and growth of the VIP business including the day to day operations of the VIP team. “We look forward to working closely with Beveley as she acquires new business, looks after and spoils our current VIPs and manages exclusive events,” says Tanuja Gangabishun, Marketing Executive at Emerald Resort & Casino.“I would like to thank Emerald for providing me with this opportunity,” says Naidoo. “I realise that I have joined a slick and well-meshed team and look forward to adding my experience to it.”
South Africa. Having founded the country’s two largest hotel groups - Southern Sun and Sun International - Kerzner would go on to achieve international prominence with groundbreaking resorts that helped transform the tourism industries not only of his home country but of Mauritius, the Maldives, the Bahamas, Dubai and other important international destinations. Kerzner set up the first casino across the border
from South Africa in the former Bophutatswana, when gambling was still illegal in neighbouring South Africa.
Sun City became famous world-wide as a result of his pioneering vision of bringing Vegas-style resort casinos to Africa, and South Africans flocked in droves across the border to sample this never-before-seen style of gambling and entertainment. Known to those who worked with him in the early days as a tireless, yet irascible perfectionist, he laid the groudwork for what would eventually become South Africa’s burgeoning casino industry. Sol’s glamorous lifestyle in the early days as celebritries, musicians and beauty queens flocked to Sun City made him famous and firmly entrenched his celebrity status, earning him the tabloid-moniker the ‘Sun King’.
South Africa Covid lockdown: all casinos, tourist attractions close
All national parks, casinos, theme parks and other major tourist attractions will close, as part of the national lockdown announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to curtail the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many attractions such as Table Mountain cableway and beaches along the Durban beachfront have already been closed to the public and tourists. Gaming group Sun International started closing its
casinos across the country from March 24th, while industry peer Tsogo Sun Gaming’s casinos closed on March 25th, ahead of the official lockdown which came into effect at midnight on Thursday, March 26. The lockdown will be in force for 21 days until midnight on April 16. Sun International announced that it would be
closing all its hotels in South Africa as part of the lockdown. “During the lockdown period, the group will operate on a limited staff basis, with only a handful of key and essential personnel remaining on the premises, to ensure the general maintenance and security… We have engaged with our union, employees, suppliers, service providers and concessionaires and significant action is being taken to reduce costs... While Sun International continues to engage with its various lenders to ensure that its credit facilities are maintained, the full financial impact of the coronavirus on the company will only be able to be determined once the lockdown has been uplifted and its ramifications properly assessed. Shareholders will
be kept apprised of developments in this regard,” the group added. On Friday, JSE-listed Tsogo Sun Hotels, which was unbundled from Tsogo Gaming last year, announced that it would be “deactivating” (essentially temporarily closing) 36 hotels within the group as a result of a “collapse in demand”. Tsogo Sun Gaming said in a statement that despite reduced trading volumes since March 19 and the 21-day lockdown, which will have a negative impact on the results for the financial year ending 31 March 2020, the group still expects to deliver a solid set of results regardless of this setback. “From Monday 16 March 2020, directly after the
President’s speech, the negative impact of the COVID-19 virus became directly evident for the first time, and from Thursday 19 March 2020 the position deteriorated significantly with sites operating with limited capacity due to the regulatory restrictions,” noted Chris du Toit, CEO of Tsogo Sun Gaming. He said all divisions of the group, being LPMs (limited pay-out machines) operated in bars and restaurants, bingo sites and casino entertainment complexes, have been impacted. “We fully support government’s efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in South Africa. With the lockdown measures announced by the President, all Tsogo Sun Gaming casinos and Galaxy Bingo sites will be closed to the public by Wednesday 25 March 2020. VSlots will close down in line with the various sites where its machines are deployed,” added Du Toit.
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