South African casinos switch slot machines back on
When Sun International’s (SUIJ.J) Times Square Casino in South Africa’s administrative capital Pretoria opens its doors again on Monday, following a three-month shutdown, every second slot machine will be off and shields will separate clients.
The seating arrangement, designed to maintain physical distance between customers, is one of the new measures casinos are putting in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
The casino, as are others, is only allowed to operate at 50% capacity of its over 2,000 slot machines and 60 casino tables to avoid crowding, as South Africa eased lockdown restrictions further on Monday.
The industry is one of the hardest hit by the lockdown restrictions imposed from late March to slow the spread of the virus.
Sun International rival Tsogo Sun Gaming (TSGJ.J) lost an estimated 2 billion rand ($116.05 million) in revenue during the three-month lockdown. Sun International has proposed raising 1.2 billion rand through a rights issue in order to survive the pandemic.
The industry, which contributes around 1% to the economy, is among the few sectors in the country which had been growing above 4% before the outbreak. It generated over 18 billion rand in revenues in 2018.
Read the full story on: Reuters.