Casinos have contributed more than R50bn to SA’s gross domestic product (GDP) over the past financial year in terms of economic multipliers‚ according to a Casino Industry of SA (CASA) report released on Thursday.

During the past financial year‚ SA’s 37 casinos paid more than R4.7bn to government coffers through company tax‚ including R1.8bn in provincial gambling taxes and VAT‚ the report shows.

They also invested over R80 million in communities through social investment programmes and spent a further R10 million maintaining the internationally recognised National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP).

CASA chief executive Derek Auret said: “Aside from the obvious benefit to government‚ casinos have also been responsible for more than R30bn in new development‚ have created almost 100‚000 direct and indirect new jobs and have added 7‚000 new hotel rooms and two international convention centres to our national tourism assets.”

Commenting on the recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers review of the gambling industry‚ Auret said “while a total of R245bn was wagered by South Africans in 2011 across various forms of gambling‚ it is important to note that more than 93% of the bets were returned to casino players in the form of winnings.

“The 7% retained by casinos is fed back into running costs‚ including taxes and levies.”

In terms of gross gambling revenue‚ the biggest winner was government which received 36.39%‚ or R4.7bn of the gross casino revenue. This is followed by employees‚ at 19.93% and investment in infrastructure and expansion at 17.13%.

A further slice of 26.55% is spent on community investment‚ servicing of debt‚ shareholders and equipment and machine leasing costs.

However‚ CASA also cautioned government not to regard casinos as an easy target for additional tax revenue.

Chairman Jabu Mabuza said notwithstanding the resilience casinos showed in an unpromising environment‚ “compounding the economic challenges has been a growing enthusiasm on the part of policy-makers for more stringent regulation and taxation of the industry.”

During his budget speech in February this year‚ Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced his intention to introduce a national tax based on gross gambling revenue from April 1‚ 2013.

This was mooted to have a significant effect on casino profitability and ability to reinvest.