Botswana’s Secretary of the Casino Control Board, John Matsheng, has announced that three new casinos have been licensed in the southern African country: two in Gaborone, the capital city, and one in Palapye. One of the casinos will be opened at the Gaborone Hotel, while the other one will be located at a hotel to be built near the Riverwalk mall. Matsheng said that the new licences were issued last year.

Further news also came from the Casino Board is that the casino at the Gaborone Hotel will be opened before the end of this year. Palapye will now be the only village in the country with a casino. In the past the Paramount Chief of Batawana, Tawana Moremi rejected calls by some companies to open a casino in the tourist village of Maun. Asked about the current moratorium on casino licences, Matsheng said that the 3 licences awarded were pending applications that had to be dealt with, and are for citizen-owned companies.

The local gaming industry is dominated by non-citizens. The granting of the casino licences adds to the eight already operating casinos. Currently there are casinos in Gaborone, Francistown, Selebi-Phikwe, Jwaneng and Lobatse. The recently refurbished Gaborone Sun Hotel casino is the oldest in the country, and was later followed by the opening of a casino at the Grand Palm, which led to a number of gambling dens opening in other urban areas. Last year a company that was operating an illegal casino at the Gaborone station shopping complex was ordered to close its operations by the High Court.

The casino business has turned into a multi million dollar industry. Gross revenue earned by all the casinos during the yearly period to March 2005 amounted to 94 million Pula (US$16.2 million), with the government raking in P9 million in (US$1.6M) in licence levies. Announcing also that the moratorium on licences will be extended because the government is waiting for a Gaming and Gambling Plan study, Matsheng added that the intention was to realise the plan first but, due to financial constraints, they have not been able to engage a consultant to undertake a socio-economic analysis of the gaming industry in the country. Part of the Gaming Plan for Botswana was the establishment of an autonomous casino authority. (E-07.03.06)

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