{"id":130933,"date":"2020-03-23T15:36:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T22:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=130933"},"modified":"2020-03-23T16:46:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T23:46:02","slug":"sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/","title":{"rendered":"Sol Kerzner: South Africa\u2019s \u2018Sun City\u2019 Casino Supremo Dead at 84"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sol Kerzner, the South African gambling and hospitality mogul whose Sun City complex was arguably the blueprint for the modern themed integrated casino resort, has died aged 84.<\/p>\n

\"Sol
Sol Kerzner, South Africa\u2019s pugnacious, controversial, but undoubtedly visionary casino and hospitality mogul. (Image: IOL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kerzner\u2019s name is less well-known in the US, although he built the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut in the mid-1990s in partnership with the Mohegan Sun tribe, and held a 50 percent stake in the venture until 2000.<\/p>\n

He also once owned Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, which he bought in 1998 from Merv Griffin, selling it on three years later.<\/p>\n

In the Bahamas, he acquired the Paradise Island Resort and developed it into Atlantis, building one of the world\u2019s largest man-made marine habitats and the Caribbean\u2019s biggest casino.<\/p>\n

But it’s for the wildly ambitious — and controversial — Sun City in his native South Africa that Kerzner will be remembered.<\/p>\n

‘Freedom and Fun’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1981, eight years before Steve Wynn opened the Mirage, which set a new standard for resorts in Las Vegas, there was Kerzer\u2019s Sun City. The resort promised \u201cfreedom and fun,\u201d and came complete with artificial volcanoes, man-made lakes, fire-breathing animatronic statues, and even the odd simulated earthquake.<\/p>\n

There were four hotels, two golf courses, and a huge concert hall that hosted Frank Sinatra on the resort\u2019s opening night.<\/p>\n

Uniquely for apartheid-era South Africa, Sun City also had a casino, porn-movie theaters, and adult revue shows.<\/p>\n

Vilified for Apartheid <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sun City was built in Bophuthatswana, a nominally independent \u201chomeland\u201d where the apartheid regime dumped millions of Tswana-speaking black South Africans to segregate them from whites.<\/p>\n

Its \u201cindependence\u201d — which was recognized by no other country but South Africa — allowed Sun City to offer the kind of risqu\u00e9 entertainment that was illegal elsewhere in the country. It also got Kerzer some serious tax breaks.<\/p>\n

Kerzer claimed he operated Sun City on a \u201cnon-racial basis,\u201d as a place where black and white South Africans could mingle freely.<\/p>\n

\n

Nevertheless, Sun City became synonymous with apartheid, and the steady stream of A-list acts Kerzner booked to play in the concert theater in the 1980s were vilified, as global sentiment hardened against the regime and calls for sanctions intensified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The rock band Queen was put on the United Nations list of blacklisted artists for playing there in 1984.<\/p>\n

In 1985, Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s E Street Band wrote I Ain\u2019t Gonna Play Sun City<\/em>. \u00a0Performed by Artists United Against Apartheid — which included everyone from Run-DMC to Bob Dylan — the song became an anthem for the Free Nelson Mandela campaign.<\/p>\n

The Sun King<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sol \u201cThe Sun King\u201d Kerzner was born into a working-class Jewish family in Johannesburg in 1935. As a youth, he played with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, and boxed, later becoming varsity welterweight champion at the University of the Witwatersrand, from which he graduated with a degree in Accountancy.<\/p>\n

While still in his early 20s, he bought the Astra, a small inn in the city of Durban, which became successful. From there, he began expanding his fledgling hospitality empire, which would one day span the globe.<\/p>\n

\n

Kerzner was known as a demanding character \u2013 \u201ca foul-mouthed bully to some, a plain speaker to others,\u201d according to The Times.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He was accused of bribery in his home country, and — as a man who claimed he did not discriminate by color or race — was denounced for using apartheid to further his own business interests. But after the collapse of the regime, he became close friends with Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n

A hard-drinking, cigar-chomping womanizer, Kerzner gave up smoking and drinking after a stint in rehab in his 70s. He died after a long battle with lung cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sol Kerzner, the South African gambling and hospitality mogul whose Sun City complex was arguably the blueprint for the modern themed integrated casino resort, has died aged 84. Kerzner\u2019s name is less well-known in the US, although he built the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut in the mid-1990s in partnership with the Mohegan Sun tribe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":130936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3313,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSol Kerzner: South Africa\u2019s \u2018Sun City\u2019 Casino Supremo Dead at 84<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sol Kerzker, aka the Sun King, developer of South Africa\u2019s visionary but controversial Sun City casino resort, has died from lung cancer aged 84.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sol Kerzner: South Africa\u2019s \u2018Sun City\u2019 Casino Supremo Dead at 84\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sol Kerzker, aka the Sun King, developer of South Africa\u2019s visionary but controversial Sun City casino resort, has died from lung cancer aged 84.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-23T22:36:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-23T23:46:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Untitledsol.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"718\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/\",\"name\":\"Sol Kerzner: South Africa\u2019s \u2018Sun City\u2019 Casino Supremo Dead at 84\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Untitledsol.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-23T22:36:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-23T23:46:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Sol Kerzker, aka the Sun King, developer of South Africa\u2019s visionary but controversial Sun City casino resort, has died from lung cancer aged 84.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sol-kerzner-south-africas-sun-city-casino-supremo-dead-at-84\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Untitledsol.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Untitledsol.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":718,\"caption\":\"Sol Kerzner, South Africa\u2019s pugnacious, controversial, but undoubtedly visionary casino and hospitality mogul. 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