Turn of the Cards

How sub-Saharan Africa changed from a table to a slots market

“The first opportunity we spotted outside southern Africa was in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,” says John A. Robbins of KaiRo International.

“We started with the shell of an old hotel ballroom. We converted it and put in all the latest technology, which hadn’t been seen outside southern Africa. Until then, the tendency in the rest of Africa was to open venues with second hand equipment, such as old electro mechanical slots. But we decided if we’re going to do it, let’s do it with the latest technology and see what we can achieve.”

At that time, the market for modern slots outside southern Africa wasn’t proven.

“Equipment suppliers don’t typically offer credit or deals to operators based outside southern Africa. You pay cash for machines up front and take your chances. Once we got established, though, we had all the major companies knocking on our door saying ‘Try this machine’.”

Mr Robbins says Novomatic is now an important supplier for KaiRo International in Africa.

“We work very closely with Novomatic and have a very good relationship with them. They were the leaders in that market for us. Then we came in with Aristocrat, IGT etc. We’ve always had Ballys and Universals over the years, but I would say Novomatic has taken the major share. We’re not big operators, more like a club operator—200 or 300 slot machines, that sort of size, in a few biggish cities.”

And this is where the unlikely story of the test bed for Asian slot players comes into play. A few years after the company’s first African venue, The New Africa Hotel and Casino, opened in Tanzania, there was an explosion in the number of Chinese nationals travelling the globe in search of commodities, trade and investment opportunities as China’s economy took off.