Limpopo Gambling Board Final

4. Foreword by the Chairperson

Introduction

It is with great pleasure to present the Limpopo Gambling Board Annual Report for the 2022/23 Financial Year, to the Executive Authority. It is even more pleasing that the Entity has achieved all the set targets as per the Annual Performance Plan. These significant outcomes are through the collective efforts of our executive management and the entire staff, the leadership of the Board and continuous support from the shareholder. The Entity has also once more outdone itself in maintaining good governance for the year 2022/23 by attaining an unqualified audit opinion without any significant findings (clean audit). I would like to emphasize that this outcome could not be realised

without the dedication of the staff, and support and guidance from the leadership of the board, the executive authority, and the entire shareholder family, including Provincial Treasury and Office of the Premier. This means that the Entity has retained a clean audit for the 4th consecutive year. It is also pleasing to note that we have made significant progress in the areas that were identified as lacking by the AGSA in the previous financial years. Notably is the area around the Information management system including business continuity. This has been an area of concern for a considerable amount of time. We are happy that this will finally be put to rest in the 2023/24 Financial Year. It will also be remiss not to acknowledge the areas which the AGSA raised concerns about, around our financial statements. We believe that this is an area that we will pay closer attention to especially aided by the envisaged appointment of the Senior Manager: Finance. We also collected more levies in 2022/23 than any other year including the pre-COVID 19 period. A total of R196 million was collected in this financial year compared to R130 million in the previous 2021/22 Financial Year. The bookmakers were the biggest contributors to the growth in levies at 96% while casino also grew by 20%. We are more comforted by the growth in casinos as they generally employ more staff. While we are pleased with the increase in the levies collected, we are also cautious that this should not be because of an overstimulation in the gambling market exacerbated by tough economic conditions. To this end we will be concluding the study with the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF) as well as the National Gambling Board (NGB) to determine the extent of gambling in our province. We are awaiting the outcomes of both studies as they will determine if we can increase the number of Limited Pay-out Machines as well as other gambling sites.

LIMPOPO GAMBLING BOARD 2022/23

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