JOHANNESBURG

More than 1000 compulsive gamblers have been officially banned from casinos in the Eastern Cape, the Daily Dispatch Online reported on Thursday.

It said those affected included a businessman who claims to have blown more than R30 million at gambling tables.

Hemingways Casino in East London has banned 421 individuals -- some at their own request.

One of them, King William’s Town businessman Winston Kasper, said he lost R30 million to casinos in the province over two decades.

It took many years for Kasper to hit rock bottom.

“But by the time I did, I had lost almost everything: money, houses, cars, businesses, my friends and my children’s respect.”

The 52-year-old frequented casinos for almost 23 years, but it was only after he lost a quarter of a million in four days in January that he managed to pull out.

“When you gamble and win you probably feel the same high as when you use drugs. It’s better than sex.”

The father of 11 insisted he had now seen the light, voluntarily banning himself from Hemingways for two years.

Kasper, originally from Port Elizabeth, started gambling in 1981 at Amatola Sun in Bhisho, but did not see it as an addiction.

 “At first it was about getting out and socialising. Then I started gambling because I was bored.”

Kasper was adamant he would not set foot in a casino again.

Some 572 people from other provinces had also been excluded on their own request to the Eastern Cape Gambling Board.

The board is legally allowed to exclude gamblers against their will if they leave children under the age of 10 unattended for an unreasonable period of time.

Others grounds for exclusion are if an individual is declared a compulsive gambler by a psychologist; or if the livelihood of the gambler’s dependants is threatened,

reported the Dispatch.