Casinos rake in P280m from gambling

Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday April 12, 2019 12:58

Gambling Authority (GA), chief executive officer Thulisizwe Johnson was addressing the parastatal’s national stakeholder pitso held recently.

He was responding to a question by Cresta Hotel’s area general manager (North) Robert Kabuzu, who wanted to know details about the revenues in the industry.

Kabuzu raised his comment on the GA national stakeholder pitso, held at Cresta Thapama Hotel.

Johnson said that the amount generated from gambling in the country was still low as there were only nine licenced casinos in operation.

“We haven’t licenced a lot of casinos in the past years and we believe that if the numbers increase, the gambling industry will be more lucrative,” he said.

“The market is still growing and in future, it will boost the country’s economy.”

Johnson said if Botswana were able to attract more investment into the gambling industry, it would transform into a thriving industry like that of Mauritius.

“Mauritius has a population of about a million people, but their gambling is generating close to a billion pula,” the CEO said.

The authority’s chief operating officer, Potlako Mawande encouraged more Batswana to come forward for betting licences, saying other African countries had proven that this particular type of gambling was lucrative. Sport betting in South Africa in 2019 was expected to accrue revenues of $185 million, while in Nigeria it reached $2 billion in 2016 and $20 million in Kenya in 2017.