GAMING FOR AFRICA
Gaming For Africa
Casino International’s Africa partner is the excellent Gaming For Africa magazine, bringing you the continent’s latest developments
Carnival City Casino Re-Opens after Fire Guts Entrance
Kenya Looks to Restrict Gambling to
5-Star Hotels After South Africa and Nigeria, Kenya is the third most substantial gambling market in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country legalized betting on games of chance and sports in 1966 when it passed the Betting, Lotteries, and Gaming Act under CAP 131. That is a bill under which the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) was established. Now, Kenya’s key centre of Nairobi is mulling draconian
Carnival City casino has re-opened for operations after the casino’s main entrance was engulfed by fire oover the weekend. Carnival City says authorities gave the clearance for the Gauteng casino to reopen this weeks after its main entrance was engulfed by fire, believed to have started as a result of an electrical fault. “Authorities have given the casino the
all-clear to reopen for trade, but guests are requested to use the Welcome Centre entrance. Though videos being shared on social media convey a sense of a large fire, this was not the case. The exact cause for the fire still needs to be determined but Carnival City can confirm it was not caused by a deliberate or malicious act,” said Annemie Turk, Carnival City general manager. Turk said the fi re, which occurred outside the main entrance, was contained to that area.
26 MARCH 2022 “Carnival City can reassure all guests
that the fire was fully extinguished after about 15 minutes and did not spread to the interior of the building,” said Turk. City of Ekurhuleni emergency services
said the fire is suspected to have been caused by an electrical short circuit and no injuries were reported. “On investigation, it was found that
Fibreglass material from outside ... caught alight, suspected to have been caused by an electrical short circuit,” said City of Ekurhuleni emergency services spokesperson William Ntladi. Ntladi added that when emergency
services arrived at the scene, firefighters immediately started the fire suppression. Once the flames were extinguished, damping down was conducted and the scene was declared safe.
measures that will address growing concern about young people in Kenya overindulging in this pastime. In 2019, the Kenyan government proposed a bill dubbed the New Gambling Act of 2020 to come into force that would introduce a 35% tax on all gaming adverts. Now, Nairobi, Kenya’s most gambling-rich territory, boasting twenty- three casinos, is looking to launch an aggressive offensive against the betting industry by proposing legislative changes that would limit gambling to fi ve-star hotels only. In addition the porposal aims to impose fi nes on operators, where anyone operating a gaming/betting venue outside of predefi ned working hours would face a fi ne of Sh10 million or a four-year jail term. While the proposed clampdown on land-based casinos seems like an extreme knee-jerk reaction without addressing other forms of gambling like online football and sportsbetting, it is an idea that has been around for a while, but one that is unlikley to become law, but instead garners headlines. One of the sponsors of the proposed Nairobi amendments, South B ward representative Waithera Chege believes that the legislative changes will help prevent gambling addiction and guide Kenya’s youth towards productive work. Chege has stated that in line with the proposed amendment to the Nairobi City County Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Bill - “All licensed lottery, betting and gaming premises, and gambling websites should only operate within the hours of 8 PM and 6 AM.” Chege’s statements must be seen against a
GeoPoll online gaming survey that showed that Kenya had the highest youth participation rate of all the countries polled, with 76%. Uganda came in second place with a participation rate of 57%. Kenyans most prefer to bet on sporting events and 96% of those engaging in this pastime in Kenya do so via their mobile phones. That is the highest smartphone betting participation rate in Africa.
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