According to a recent report, Eastern Cape region officials share great hopes regarding the area's two future casinos. The local government projects that the two multi-million Rand gaming complexes will open by mid 2007, attracting an extensive number of both local and foreign visitors to Eastern Cape where new mega entertainment complex, luxury hotels and budget lodges are on the cards as moves accelerate to open two new casinos.

The casinos will be in the Queenstown-Aliwal North area and Mthatha-Port St Johns region. Eastern Cape government officials say the two multi-million rand complexes will open their doors to the public by June 2007 and will attract more domestic and foreign tourists to the province. Although the casinos won't transform those poverty-stricken areas, there are spin-offs for the province.

Eight potential investors seeking to obtain an operations license for one of the casinos have reportedly taken part in the bidding process. Vuyani Mati, CEO of the Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board, was reported as saying that Board members would reach their decisions by September 2006. The entire process is most likely to last as long as a year, as the Board must provide bidders with enough time to submit the most suitable proposals.

The two casinos are expected to create thousands of job vacancies for residents of their hosting communities. Mati also said that Eastern Cape gaming authorities would lean towards the proposals that would give the biggest boost to the tourism industry and offer the best entertainment services. As news of the possible bidders was not available, we´ll take a trip to wonderful South Africa in early January to check in situ who, what and where. (E-11.07.05)

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