Sun City was built in the 1970s in what was then the nominally independent homeland of Bophuthatswana, where gambling was legal while it was banned in South Africa proper. Two hours by road from Johannesburg, it became a resort of hotels, golf courses and a water park around a casino floor.
After national legalisation in 1996 the property lost its legal advantage but kept its position as the best-known South African resort, now operating alongside licensed casinos in the cities and adjacent to the Pilanesberg game reserve.
