Goa Government Forms Special Team For Inspection of Casinos, Casino Policy on Hold For Now

Goa govt. forms special team to inspect offshore casinos
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  • Namita Ghosh January 23, 2020
  • 2 Minutes Read

Though their presence in River Mandovi has been long opposed, there is no doubt that Goa’s offshore casinos are a significant revenue generator for the state. Last month, news broke out that the government may finally be tabling the long-awaited casino policy in January 2020. From the recent media interactions of State Ports Minister Michael Lobo, it is clear that the casino policy will be on hold until the government manages to resolve the ongoing mining issue. However, what comes as a matter of serious concern for Casino operators is the state government’s apprehension that some casinos are under-reporting their capacity at the time of license issuance.

Fearing that it is incurring huge revenue loss for the same reason, the state government has constituted a special Inspection Authority for inspection of Goa’s casinos. The team will inspect the six offshore casinos and assess their carrying capacity.

In addition to evaluating whether casinos are correctly reporting their vessel capacity, the special Inspection Authority will assess compliance of the casinos to the provisos of the Goa Gambling Act. Though the team is also authorized to inspect onshore casinos, it’s not clear at this point whether it will do so.

 

Special Inspection Authority – Mandate

The newly set-up special Inspection Authority will be led by the Under Secretary (Home) and will comprise of officials from the Commercial Taxes Department, Captain of Ports (CoP), Goa State Pollution Control Board, an Assistance Engineer of the PWD and a local police officer. Here are the primary aspects that the team will look into –

> Whether the casinos are complying with the terms and conditions under which they have been issued a license to operate from the State Home department.

> If the offshore casinos are falsely reporting the carrying capacities of their vessels.

 

Casino Draft Policy – Further Delays

Though the Goa government has envisaged moving the offshore casinos to land and even earmarked the Mopa Airport complex for this, the draft casino policy for the regulatory management of the sector is yet to be tabled. Offshore casinos have been continually granted six-month extensions to operate on River Mandovi, but concern over the pollution they have caused have riled up the locals and social activists.

The government did consider shifting these casinos to Aguada Bay or the Veerem side of Mandovi, but both suggestions were met with vitriolic opposition. Last month, reliable government sources hinted that the government was looking at tabling the casino policy in January 2020. However, in his last interaction with the media, State Ports Minister Michael Lobo denied the possibility of the casino policy being tabled any time soon.

Michael Lobo
Michael Lobo

 

Lobo said that the government’s top priority right now is to resume iron ore mining in the area that was halted in March 2018 after Supreme Court rendered all state-issued licenses invalid. At a juncture, he added, where the livelihood of lakhs of people involved in the mining sector is in danger, bringing in the casino policy will be foolhardy.

He recalled that it had been late CM Manohar Parrikar’s decision to move casinos to land. “Casino owners had agreed to the proposal but suggested that they should be given time and be allowed to have live gaming. The same was agreed by the then CM, who had said that soon we will come out with the Land Casino Policy for the State of Goa.” Lobo emphasized that the casino policy is an essential roadmap for the government to regulate the casino industry.

Effectively, the much-awaited casino policy is back on the backburner. This announcement comes at a time when the Inspection Authority is expected to issue a notice to casinos and initiate proceedings for the inspection of the vessels over the coming week.

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