The basic history of South Africa as a nation is rather convoluted, and it is packed with lots of happy moments as well as some terrible ones as well. In a nation with such a long history, it is only natural that the history of gambling in South Africa is as extensive as it is.
Furthermore, by learning how real money gambling and casino games got their start in South Africa, you may have a greater grasp of how gaming developed as well as a better comprehension of online casino gamers than the typical individual!
The Formative Years
In South Africa’s gaming sector, Sun International has had a hegemonic position since the early 1980s. South Africa is not the kind of nation that takes a step back when it comes to putting laws and regulations in place. When governments pass legislation, they expect individuals and corporations to follow the rules.
Early in the seventeenth century, the first laws prohibiting practically all forms of real-money gambling were enacted. It wasn’t until 1965,
with the introduction of the South African Gambling Act, that betting was made formally outlawed in the country. In 1965, the leaders of four South African territories, Venda, Transkei, Ciskei, and Bophuthatswana, defied the government and opted to legalize real money casino gambling in their own areas, despite opposition from the government.
In the following months, the first casino-related deal was hashed out between the leaders of Bantustan and representatives from the hotel companies Holiday Inn and Southern Sun. Fast forward to 1983, when a tiny stakeholder in the Southern Sun hotel firm, named Sol Kerzner, decided to sell his interests and establish a completely new casino operating company, which would be known as Sun International. Before long, Kerzner and his Sun International real money casino firm had amassed a full set of 18 homeland gaming licenses, which they used to operate their online casino.
The History of the Casino
As with most large corporate transactions, there was a great deal of pushing and tugging. Negotiations between Sun International and South African officials were required in the areas where Sun International possessed gambling licenses in order to determine what the rate of taxation would be on real cash gaming revenues. It was only until Kerzner decided to pay up a significant portion of the earnings he gained from genuine gambling in South Africa that he was able to completely establish Sun International as the country’s leading gaming firm, according to Forbes.
However, it is not entirely accurate to state that Sun International was South Africa’s finest gaming corporation since, in actuality, they had almost no competition, allowing their operations to expand unhindered.
With the establishment of a comprehensive network of Sun International casinos throughout the country,
as well as the establishment of a monopoly in which their casinos were the only legal ones in which SA players could participate, Sun International established a firm foothold in the South African gambling industry. Furthermore, as a result of their overwhelming market dominance, Sun International was able to reach the point where they were essentially controlling all real money gaming themselves. Sun International, on the other hand, made some unpleasant judgments. There were many of them, including bringing in workers from Europe to work at their new real money casinos rather than hiring local employees. In subsequent years, they did hire South Africans, and in later years, those South African employees were elevated up the corporate hierarchy.
Once Sun International had established themselves in their first regions, they set their eyes on spreading the real money gambling virus to neighboring nations such as Swaziland, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, as well as as far away as the tropical island paradises of Mauritus.
Having learned that real-money gambling occurred in South Africa long before the invention of the Internet, it may be time to try your hand at an online casino game of your choosing. Internet casinos provide a wide variety of games, but if you take a look at their game listings, you’ll see that there are a number of casino games that are still as popular with real money gamblers now as they were during the heyday of land-based casinos!