The Challenge of Transformation within the Regulatory Environment of the Gambling Industry- The Role within the Southern African

Economic empowerment reflects the challenges, the changes and the strategies of a large part of the South African population to have entry into industries, business sectors where the ownership and the skills were located in the hands of a few South Africans. The attempts of the private and public sector to address these inequalities as well as the skewed workforce balance has been directed by the economic empowerment agenda. The process of change impacted both private sector firms as well as public sector organizations. The paper will evaluate social equity as a concept within the casino industry as well as the regulators role as a government support policy for the advancement of the economic empowerment process. This paper will particularly focus on the policies, practices of the regulatory environment that could assist in stimulating and supporting social equity development as an imperative. Furthermore, this paper will determine the key success factors for the operationalisation of such social equity beneficiaries within the gambling environment and the reasons why such initiatives should focus on the support of empowerment initiatives and the possible stimulation of small and medium enterprises as an economic viable strategy. The main methodological approach will be reflecting on the case of the Western Cape as a provincial regulator within the gambling environment, the impact of social equity as an instrument and its possible lessons learnt and to duplicated or avoided.