[imagesource: Sun International]

Casinos don’t always get the best press. Indeed, they can often be something of a soft target for media publications, easy to blame for social problems, leading youngsters into a life of gambling and tempting their parents into bad habits. It is refreshing, therefore, to see one such leisure business hitting the headlines in a good news story relating to its vital work and contribution towards child welfare.

GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World is the largest entertainment complex of its type in South Africa. It has faced the same difficulties that have plagued the rest of the entertainment sector over recent months, but this has not been allowed to distract it from doing vital work in cooperation with the Peninsula School Feeding Association (PSFA), a charitable trust that works to ensure no school child goes hungry, through school feeding programmes. 

PSFA steps up to the plate

The PSFA launched way back in 1958, when the government of the time brought an end to free school meals for children. Its main objective is to provide meals to underprivileged kids at all stages of education, including special needs establishments and Orphaned and Vulnerable Children’s Centres (OVCs). 

In the years that it has been operating, it has put an impressive 1.8 billion meals in front of hungry children in the Western Province. But the work does not stop there. The PSFA is also involved in a wide range of other developmental initiatives that aim to improve school attendance rates and overall learning, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The GrandWest partnership

Mervyn Naidoo is the general manager of GrandWest. He explained that the company has worked with the PSFA to provide Valhalla Secondary School in Cape Town’s Elsies River district with R74 250. 165 of the school’s 500 students are on the school feeding programme, and the money will provide them with nutritious daily meals. 

In addition, GrandWest has donated a further R200 000 to spend on the purchase and installation of a 20 square metre container that can be used as a school kitchen. The structure will be fitted out with sinks, worktops, hot water and gas, as well as the installation of secure windows and a serving hatch. Until now, Valhalla School has been using its Consumer Studies classroom as a temporary school kitchen. Mr Naidoo said the school can now look to returning this to its original purpose and to recruiting a Consumer Studies teacher. 

The timing is vital, as more families than ever are facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic that has swept South Africa and the wider world over the past 12 months. Feeding hungry mouths in South Africa’s schools is more important now than ever. 

GrandWest’s reopening

South Africa’s gaming economy is booming, despite the difficulties that are facing the broader leisure and entertainment sector at present. The overall gaming industry is expected to grow another 18 percent over the next two years, bringing its revenue close to R4.5 billion, and iGaming is responsible for a significant proportion of that growth. 

GrandWest operates the largest casino in South Africa, larger even that the famous entertainment complexes in Sun City, and is part of the Sun International leisure group. The facility boasts more than 1,500 gaming machines that are operated by smart cards and 37 gaming tables offering traditional casino games that include blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more. Add to that a choice of restaurants, conference facilities and regular music and entertainment events, and it all adds up to one of the premier destinations in the city.

GrandWest reopened after weeks of closure with safety measures in place that include temperature checks, admission limits, sanitisation stations and the mandatory wearing of face masks. Inevitably, the period of closure and the implementation of measures like these put a serious dent in the business’s financial results. 

Will online businesses follow suit?

This makes it all the more gratifying that Grand West has still been able to make a charitable contribution towards school meals in the way it has. It also emphasises that it’s time for online casinos operating in South Africa to also step up and make a difference, as they are not affected by the current market difficulties in the same way as GrandWest. 

The sector is an interesting one, as the online casino businesses are prohibited in South Africa under National Gambling Board (NGB) regulations. The rules mean that casinos like GrandWest were not able to mitigate their losses during the lockdown period by providing their customers with online versions of their favourite games. However, the NGB cannot prevent offshore operators from providing online casino services to South African citizens. 

At a time when people are coming together to support the most vulnerable, GrandWest’s gesture is one that should be applauded. We can only watch and wait to see if those casino operators who are registered in the likes of Curacao and Malta will similarly step up to the plate and will give something back to an economy that has helped iGaming to grow into one of the largest leisure industries on the planet.

Helping develop the next generation of leaders

The politics of South Africa’s gaming regulations is clearly a topic that needs further attention when online casino rules place domestic owned businesses at such a disadvantage compared with offshore operators. However, that is a topic for another day. The final word should go to Martin Lesch, the Secondary Principal at Valhalla, who was delighted to see the impact the new facility will have on his young charges. 

He told local reporters that it will allow the school to expand and develop its feeding programme to ensure that no student goes hungry, and he added: “Learners cannot be expected to sit at their desks and concentrate on their books when their stomachs are empty, so this donation is truly one which contributes towards the future of our country by helping to develop the next generation of leaders.”