Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho is an enclaved country, completely surrounded by the territory of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 in size . The largest city is Maseru. Lesotho was previously the British Crown Colony of Basutoland, but it declared independence from the United Kingdom on 4 October 1966.





From a Word Bank report 1977 “ Lesotho , a small country entirely surrounded by the RSA, is one of the 29 countries classified as least developed by the United Nations. Lesotho has a few natural resources, and less than 15% of its land is suitable for crop cultivation. The economy is characterized by the dominance of subsistence agriculture and by migration for employment in the mines of the RSA. Tourism also developed as an important new sector, depending largely on the vast South African Market. The country uses the South African rand, and has no central bank of its own; it relies on monetary policies controlled by the South African Reserve Bank. With a population of around 1,2 million and a per capita GNP of around US$ 180 in 1975.
Until 1969, tourism played a minor role in the domestic economy; the number of tourists was less than 5000 per annum. By 1974, however, largely as a result of construction and subsequent expansion of the 470-bed Holiday Inn Hotel with casino facilities in the capital the city of Maseru has increased to about 80000.About 90 percent of all tourists come from South Africa. Although these casino facilities in Maseru are a major tourist attraction, the future of the sector will depend largely on successful diversification of tourism attractions to broaden the base of the sector.”
Since the country gained independence in 1966, the Government of Lesotho has sought to promote tourism as a key element of strategies for national development.

Also in 1969 was published the Casino Act 1969, to regulate the gambling in the country.
Being Lesotho a surrounded country by South Africa, the Lesotho gambling policy , was depended from the people from that market, and took advantage to the prohibition of gambling within South Africa´s borders finalized with the 1965 South Africa Gambling Act, which outlawed all forms of gambling, excluding the placement of bets on horse racing. South africans began to afflict Lesotho, where they could enjoy the pleasure forbidden in their country.

However the, the gambling industry in Lesotho was shaken by the competition of the casinos that opened in the bantustans and never got to have the great and expected development. Despite the prohibition of gambling in South Africa, casinos began to operate in South Africa´s apartheid era- bantustans towards to the late 1970s. Sun International established Sun City in Bophuthatswana in 1979, the Wild Coast in Transkei and the Fish River Sun in the Ciskei in 1989. Some others would follow. The areas of Transkei and Venda awarded rights to a subsidiary of South Africa Holiday Inn, whilst Ciskei and Bophuthatswana granted the license to Southern Sun. Later, Southern Sun acquired the monopoly in the Transkei and Ciskei as well.

As a result of theses policies, as we saw below, Holiday Inn Hotel with casino facilities was opened on 1974.
CASINOS in LESOTHO
The first casino to open in Lesotho was Holiday Inn Hotel and Casino, in 1974. On 1985 Southern Sun purchases the Holiday Inn South Africa hotels and after that Holiday Inn & Casino became Lesotho Sun Hotel & Casino. On On 2015, Sun International divested out of four hotels in Southern Africa and sold the business to a Thailand based firm, Minor Hotel Group .MHG acquired majority holding in the Gaborone Sun in Botswana, the Kalahari Sands in Namibia, the Lesotho Sun and Maseru Sun as well as the Royal Swazi and Ezulwini Sun in Swaziland. The casino was than rebranded Avani Lesotho Hotel & Casino.
All these three casinos ran successively in the same original building, however submitted to various remodels, owning slot machines and table games.
Another casino with only slot machines, worked in the Maseru Sun Hotel, built in 1969. It was renamed Avani Maseru in 2015.

HOLIDAY INN HOTEL & CASINO


Holiday Inn hotels postcard. Holiday Inn Maseru is the hotel number 2 in the postcard








The Loti is the currency of the Kingdom of Lesotho. It is pegged to the South African rand on a 1:1 basis through the Common Monetary Area, and both are accepted as legal tender within Lesotho. The loti was first issued in 1966, albeit as a non-circulating currency. In 1980, Lesotho issued its first coins denominated in both loti and lisente ( cents) dated 1979, to replace the South African Rand, but the Rand remains legal tender.







GOLD RUSH – ANOTHER SLOTS OPERATOR

Casino monopoly ( only Slot machines) smashed in Lesotho as Goldrush Group opens after court battle.
On July 25th, 2017 Gold Rush Group (Pty Limited of South Africa) launches the casino at Maseru-Mall, in a glitzy ceremony attended by the who’s who of Maseru including government ministers. The launch ceremony was the culmination of a long drawn-out court battle with AVANI Lesotho (Pty) Limited which led to the suspension of the casino’s launch the year before . Goldrush Group (Pty) Limited won the case in court in March 2017.

Chips, plaque and tokens photos from CHIPGUIDE