South Africa,
6th February, 2002

     Major delays in the progress of the limited payout machine (LPM) market in South Africa, has postponed the Gaming for Africa trade show, scheduled for Johannesburg, May 14-16 this year.

    The current indications are that only Mpumalanga, of all of the provinces, will be ready to install and operate machines in street locations, but even that process may be hampered by the inability of Zonke, the central monitoring system company, to operate on such small numbers.

    The main provinces, KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, were expected to be on-line by early this year, but a string of delays have combined to make it unlikely that they will be calling for operating licence applications until - at the earliest - later this year or even into 2003.

    "Under the circumstances," said a spokesman at Gaming for Africa magazine, which is
sponsoring the event, "it would have been impractical to run the show. We had a certain level of support, especially from casino equipment suppliers, but delaying the show for another year, we felt, was in the best interests of the industry."

    He added: "We will continue to monitor the situation and, assuming that the situation is right, then we will run the show at around the same time next year."
 

For further information on the Gaming for Africa Expo:
afrogame@mweb.co.za
Gaming for Africa
Tel: +27 (11) 704 3147
Fax: +27 (11) 704 1616.