{"id":410307,"date":"2020-06-24T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T07:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=410307"},"modified":"2020-06-24T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T07:03:09","slug":"south-africas-casinos-and-hotels-are-allowed-to-open-but-there-is-a-hitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/410307\/south-africas-casinos-and-hotels-are-allowed-to-open-but-there-is-a-hitch\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s casinos and hotels are allowed to open &#8211; but there is a hitch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sun International has published a business <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.suninternational.com\/content\/dam\/approved\/corporate\/investors\/investor-presentation-24-june-2020.pdf?p=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">update<\/a> <\/strong>detailing how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted its operations.<\/p>\n<p>The group noted that trading slowed significantly prior to lockdown and that all South African operations officially closed from 26 March 2020.<\/p>\n<p>With the announcement on 17 June that casinos, restaurants, hotels and resorts will be allowed to reopen, the group said it is now gearing up to resume operations.<\/p>\n<p>While the official regulations still need to be published, Sun International said that <strong>inter-provincial travel is currently still restricted,<\/strong> which will impact the opening of certain properties, including Sun City and the Wild Coast Sun.<\/p>\n<p>While this travel restriction may be changed at a later date, Sun International said that it expects further restrictions as part of its phased reopening.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We anticipate Advanced Alert level 3 regulations under the Disaster Management Act to be published incorporating restrictions relating to the resumption of trading of casinos, conference venues,restaurants and hotels,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>The group said that this could\u00a0include restrictions relating to, among others:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Crowd control aligned to submissions made by the industry (50% of capacity);<\/li>\n<li>Prohibition of on-premises consumption of alcohol;<\/li>\n<li>Smoking indoors;<\/li>\n<li>Social distancing;<\/li>\n<li>Switching off every second slot machine and having shields between slots;<\/li>\n<li>Limiting the number of tables players;<\/li>\n<li>Physical barriers between dealers and players;<\/li>\n<li>MVG only access.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The below images show some of the protective measures Sun International will put in place at its casinos.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-410313 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1654\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3.png 1654w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3-1024x502.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3-768x377.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3-1536x753.png 1536w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Sun-International-3-1200x588.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1654px) 100vw, 1654px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sun International said that it anticipates a &#8216;slow start to trading&#8217; and that its hotel and resort properties will be under pressure for some time.<\/p>\n<p>It said that a significant restructure of its hotel and resort properties are planned. This will include a restructure of its gaming operations. Despite this, it still anticipates significantly reduced hours and or temporary layoffs for workers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The restructure will be a difficult process but is vital for the long term survival of our hotel and resort properties, given the difficult environment that they will be facing. In a number of cases we will require gaming board approval.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Covid-19 pandemic is having a material negative impact on the macroeconomic environment with notable implications for the South African GDP outlook and a slow domestic recovery<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Although trading conditions are going to be challenging, we are confident that, with the appropriate level of support from shareholders and lenders, the company can trade through this crisis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/408907\/sun-city-and-other-resorts-are-allowed-to-reopen-here-are-the-proposed-rules-for-casinos-hotels-and-golf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sun City and other resorts are allowed to reopen \u2013 here are the proposed rules for casinos, hotels and golf<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sun International has published a business update detailing how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted its operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":408939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,4987],"class_list":["post-410307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-sun-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410307"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410323,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410307\/revisions\/410323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}