EDTEA ENTITY, KZN GAMING AND BETTING BOARD COLLECTS MORE THAN R724 MILLION FOR SERVICE DELIVERY AND GETS THE INDUSTRY TO INVEST MORE THAN R2 BILLION IN THE PROVINCE

03 Apr 2024

Media and Public Statement by the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Siboniso Duma

Sibaya Casino: In my opening address to more than 500 international and national delegates attending the 15th Annual Gaming and Regulators, we pointed the importance of this sector of our economy.

Our entity the KZN Gaming and Betting Board has collected a revenue of more than R724 million and created more than 11 600 jobs.

This money has been allocated for various service delivery programmes such as the construction of roads, houses and to ensure the provision of quality education, health, welfare services, water and electricity.

Companies that are involved Gaming and Betting sector have invested more than R2 billion towards the development of their facilities here in KZN. This has helped create jobs and stimulate other sectors of the economy such as tourism and construction.

Importantly, through our entity, we regulate horseracing events such as the Durban July which is now called HollywoodBet.

This has always been the country’s biggest race for years with more than R4.5 million in prize money and turnover of R140-million.

Many other sectors of the economy have been benefiting for years with thousands of temporal and permanent jobs created.

Due to COVID-19, jockeys lost approximately R6.5-million monthly, including riding fees and winning stakes. In addition, trainers apparently lost nearly R3-million a month with their business reduced by 20%.

As we meet today, we wish to applaud stakeholders for working together to ensure that we turn around the situation.

The horse racing industry in general contributes around R3-billion to the country’s GDP, and about R800-million in taxes every year.

The contribution of the industry to the local economy is R905 million. We want this contribution to increase year-on-year.

We are also moving with speed to unleash talent in deep rural areas through traditional racing events such as Dundee July and Umtelebhelo. These have become major events in the annual calendar which have attracted more than 70 000 tourists.

We are creating a licensing framework for the traditional horse racing which was previously excluded by the apartheid government.

We have issued calls for applications and experts throughout corners of the province. This will stimulate rural economies.

We are working jointly with licenses to transform the horse racing industry.

Hollywood Sportsbook Group and Gold Circle have collaborated with government in supporting grooms within the horseracing industry.

We want to see young people becoming horse owners, horse trainers, horse breeders, jockeys, veterinarians and grooms.

We wish to acknowledge this contribution not only here in KZN but in other provinces and neighbouring countries.

It is my view that this investment is an indication that Gaming and Betting Industry was a mature and well-established industry before COVID-19.