How much the casino and slots especially has changed over the years. Retro casino images like these always bring the nostalgia to the fore and remind me of a different, perhaps more carefree time. Of course since those days Vegas and casinos in general have become larger than life with bigger and bigger jackpots. The online world has transformed the casino experience yet further though, with the casino essentially now being beamed into your home! Thousands of slots games, as well as poker, roulette and more are available 24/7 in an experience every bit of enthralling as the ‘real thing’. And you don’t even have to get out of bed to play! If we fast forward another 50 years I wonder what ‘going to the casino’ will look like then.

Sun City Casino Resort is, as its name suggests, an integrated resort casino in North West Province in north-central South Africa. Sun City Casino Resort opened in 1979 – long before the first inclusive elections in South Africa in 1994 – in what was, in the days of apartheid, the nominally independent Republic of Bophuthatswana. Consequently, Sun City Casino Resort was one of the few places in South Africa where affluent, white tourists could gamble legally.

Despite its chequered history, Sun City Casino Resort has evolved with the times and, especially since its most recent renovation, in 2017, become a popular holiday destination, renowned for its Las Vegas-style glamour, glitz and sophistication. Open 365 days a year, Sun City Casino Resort boasts a casino floor covering 125,000 square feet, which, put in perspective, is on a par with The Venetian, or the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, in Las Vegas.

The state-of-the-art casino includes smoking and non-smoking areas and features 40 or so gaming tables, offering baccarat, blackjack, roulette and stud poker, to name but a few of the popular table games. Electronic gaming machines, including slot machines with stakes between R0.01 and R100 – R100 is the equivalent of just over £5.50 – number over 850. Many slot machines feature progressive jackpots and/or promotions that provide opportunities for players to win non-cash prizes.

The Ibiza Gran Hotel is a five-star hotel on the Balearic island of Ibiza, in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of Spain. The hotel enjoys a prestigious location in Talamanca, on a famous stretch of sand, known as the ‘Golden Mile’, overlooking the harbour of Ibiza Town. However, from a gambling perspective, the Ibiza Gran Hotel is important as the home of Casino de Ibiza, which is, in fact, the only casino on the island.

Recently expanded, refurbished and redecorated – at a reported cost of €2 million – Casino de Ibiza, nowadays, includes an exclusive, ‘heavy hitter’ zone, devoted to high-stakes slot machines. The Ibiza Gran Hotel complex has been described, in some quarters, as ‘an adult-style theme park’, but the well-designed spaces of Casino de Ibiza make for a relatively low-key, quiet, but nonetheless pleasant, gaming experience.

Casino de Ibiza is small, by usual standards, but nevertheless offers a wide range of table games, electronic games and slot machines. Of the eleven gaming tables, three are devoted to poker, specifically No Limit Texas Hold’em; cash games, with a minimum buy-in of €150, are available nightly. The remaining tables offer blackjack, punto banco and roulette – the double-zero, or ‘American’, version, but with a minimum bet of just €2.50 – and are supplemented by an array of state-of-the-art electronic games and slot machines.