South African Casinos Re-Open but Still No Joy for Online Gambling

The COVID-19 pandemic has been to South Africa's gambling industry resulting in massive revenue losses and unemployment. March 2020 saw the President of South, Cyril Ramaphosa, declare a National State of Disaster in light of the threat presented by the virus. This measure resulted in the country being placed under a mandatory Lockdown which impacted all industries other than essential services in an attempt to flatten the infection curve.

Several months later the restrictions are being lifted allowing the incremental relaunch of various sectors. Most recently, the gambling industry received the reprieve it was waiting for, when the government in partnership with the Department of Trade and industry, allowed casinos to re-open nationwide.

The required safety protocols are extremely strict and costly, however, comparative to the billions of Rands already lost it is a cost the industry leaders are willing to pay.

 Open For Business

Tsogo Sun Gaming, one of the biggest casino groups in South Africa, felt the real pinch of the Lockdown, citing revenue losses of 67%, equating to an amount of R2 billion (€103 million). Naturally this has set the group back significantly, leading to a total debt amount of around R12 billion (€622 million) in order for them to maintain facilities and not lose all their staff.

In order to open to the public South African casinos will have to adhere to the following stringent health and safety requirements:

• Strict Social Distancing protocols which include a distance between players and staff of 1.5 meters at all times
• The implementations of medical-grade sensitisation stations in public areas and all entrances
• All staff and customers will always have to wear cloth face masks
• Staff and patron screening, including the taking of temperatures and answering of health-related questionnaires
• Frequent and rigorous cleaning of all the facilities throughout the day

Despite the extra cost and effort required to ensure player and patron safety the local casino industry has been extremely positive about the entire process and are optimistic about the future of the sector.

 The New Normal

While the past three months have been very tough on the gambling industry in South Africa, one must ask if things could have been different had online gambling been legal in the country.

Two keywords in the business realm right now are ‘digital footprint’ with analysts warning that in order for any business to remain competitive it needs to be able to trade online in the wake of COVID-19. Failure to conform to such trends could result in business failure.

The world is forever changed, and many services are going online, with public demand heading in the same direction. The question that begs to be answered is will the government allow for online gambling so that the industry can grow and serve the needs of the market?

The South African government banned online gambling in 2004, however, had it provided for regulated online casino entertainment as the US has with licensed local casinos able to apply for online licencing the impact of the virus could have been negated. Unfortunately, it does not seem likely that online gambling laws are going to change anytime soon. So, instead, we wish all luck to land-based operators and hope that the loosened restrictions allow for market recovery.