Big crowd at new PE casino

PORT ELIZABETH -- Crowds of eager punters flooded the new Boardwalk Casino here from early yesterday as the gaming hall doors opened for the first time amid a buzzing, carnival atmosphere.

By late afternoon, 8500 people had passed through the casino's jam-packed entrance and management was expecting the total figure for the first day to exceed 10000 by last night.

Within 30 minutes of the 9am opening excited visitors had already filled rows of ringing slot machines as the queues outside the new R533million Summerstrand complex continued to grow.

After three hours the casino had reached its capacity of between 1800 and 2000 people and the doors had to be temporarily closed until the numbers eased off in the early afternoon.

However, by 4pm the anticipated "after work" crowd -- representing the really big rush which was expected to intensify by nightfall -- had already begun to stream through the gates.

The large numbers which arrived so early surprised even some executives of Emfuleni Resorts, developers of the casino and Entertainment World project, who said they had expected a rush "but nothing like this".

The casino had been open only an hour when an elderly punter -- a pensioner who did not wish to be identified -- hit gold with a jackpot win of R10000, achieving a royal flush on a poker machine. -- DDC