{"id":1787,"date":"2025-04-29T12:41:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T15:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:27:00","slug":"constitutional-court-rules-against-gold-reef-city-casino-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/constitutional-court-rules-against-gold-reef-city-casino-operator","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional Court rules against Gold Reef City Casino operator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Operator must cover a player&#8217;s legal costs after a player tripped while walking through the casino&#8217;s premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa.- The <strong>Constitutional Court of South Africa<\/strong> has ruled that <strong>Akani eGoli (Pty) Ltd<\/strong>, the operator of <strong>Gold Reef City Casino<\/strong>, must pay the legal costs of a customer who tripped while walking through the casino&#8217;s premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case began in <strong>2018<\/strong> when <strong>Shaynaz Prithilal<\/strong> slipped and fell at the casino. After the incident, Prithilal filed a lawsuit against <strong>Tsogo Sun Gaming<\/strong>, mistakenly believing the latter owned the property. However, in <strong>2021<\/strong>, Tsogo Sun revealed that another entity, Akani eGoli, was the actual operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The revelation led Prithilal to subsequently apply to add Akani eGoli as a second defendant in the suit. However, Akani contested the application, claiming the time had expired.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The High Court ultimately allowed the addition but ordered Prithilal to pay Akani&#8217;s legal costs in <strong>February 2024<\/strong>. Prithilal challenged the ruling, finding the cost order in favour of the operator unreasonable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After losing her appeal in the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA),&nbsp;Prithilal escalated the matter to the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Akani submitted that there were no grounds for the Constitutional Court to interfere with or overturn the High Court&#8217;s discretionary ruling. However, the Court justified its decision to entertain Prithilal&#8217;s application by citing the lack of reasoning provided by the High Court for its cost order.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Justice Owen Rogers<\/strong> said: &#8220;In the absence of reasons, it is impossible to know that the high court exercised a discretion at all, and it is certainly not possible to say that it made the order by acting on correct principles and considering all relevant factors.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rogers pointed out that the High Court still failed to explain its decision, even after Prithilal&#8217;s appeal application drew attention to this omission. He said: &#8220;One of the consequences of the absence of reasons is that Prithilal was deprived of the opportunity of demonstrating to the SCA that the high court went astray on a basis justifying appellate interference.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the circumstances, the justice ruled that Akani must cover Prithilal&#8217;s legal costs for the High Court, SCA and the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/04\/Adclick_Client-Logos_Ithuba-Lottery-300x200.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/court-showdown-looms-as-minister-promises-may-decision-on-sas-lottery-license'>Court showdown looms as Minister promises May decision on SA&#8217;s lottery licence<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Operator must cover a player&#8217;s legal costs after a player tripped while walking through the casino&#8217;s premises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":1789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Constitutional Court of South Africa has ruled that Akani eGoli, operator of Gold Reef City Casino, must cover a player's legal costs after a tripping incident on its premises. This decision overturns lower court rulings, citing a lack of judicial reasoning for the initial cost orders against the plaintiff. The case underscores operator liability for premises safety and the procedural requirements for judicial discretion in cost awards.","focusai_entities":"Akani eGoli (Pty) Ltd, Gold Reef City Casino, Shaynaz Prithilal, Tsogo Sun Gaming, Constitutional Court of South Africa, High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), Owen Rogers","focusai_location":"South Africa","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.8), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Operator Liability Implications","query":"What are the broader implications of this Constitutional Court ruling for iGaming operators regarding premises liability and the management of customer injury claims in South Africa?"},{"label":"Judicial Discretion Review","query":"How might this judgment influence future judicial discretion in awarding legal costs, particularly concerning the requirement for explicit reasoning in lower court decisions impacting corporate entities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60023,60011],"tags":[67,71,60094],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-africa","tag-casinos","tag-gambling","tag-legal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1844,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}