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May 7- The year ending March 2007 was a bumper year for Cape casinos,
according to the latest statistics released by the Casino Association of South
Africa. The figures show that Western Cape casinos, which include GrandWest,
as well as smaller casinos in Mykonos, Caledon and the Garden Route, generated
R30 billion in revenue - with gross gaming revenue around R2 billion.
Although no official numbers exist for later than March 2007, industry experts
are positive that a hot summer season, peaking in December, saw a further growth
of profits for the Western Cape resorts and it would be safe to say that by
March 2008, gaming revenue would have topped the R2.2 billion mark.
In general, the casinos situated in Cape Town generated around 18% of the
country's R13.5 billion revenue up to the end of March 2007.
Cape Town's GrandWest, long considered to be the country's most profitable
casino, attracted 6.4 million visitors, compared to the 7.6 who visited
Gauteng's Montecasino and the 8.9 visitors to Tsogo Sun's Sun Coast casino in
Durban.
Smaller casinos also fared well. In the four month period since it opened in
November 2006, the Golden Valley Casino in Worcester attracted nearly 100,000
visitors, while casinos in Mykonos and Caledon showed nearly 1 million annual
visitors each. 550,000 visitors passed through the doors of the Garden Route
casino in Mossel Bay in the year ending March 2007.
Despite these encouraging figures, however, industry experts believe that Cape
casinos will also start to feel the pinch of the general economic slowdown.
Consumer spending is expected to drop as money is directed to more important
things. This could be countered, however, by the fact that tourism to South
Africa may actually increase because of a weaker rand, thereby attracting more
foreign visitors to these locations.
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