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India – Goan casinos suffering
By Lewis - 8 October 2013
Higher taxes and fees instigated by the new Goa government, which came to power in 2012, have resulted in a number of casinos having to close their doors. Of the 19 casinos operating in Goa, three of the six offshore casinos (the remainder in land-based five-star hotels) have ceased operating. The Kanda Casino, a casino vessel abandoned on the river Mandovi by former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda, was seized and towed by the port administration last week.
Narendra Punj, Managing Director of the company which operates the Deltin Royale Casino, commented: “It’s a struggle. It is a question of survival.” Officials, however, say that the business has picked up with the depreciating rupee. Most Goan casino clients are from north India. With the depreciating rupee, travelling abroad is expensive and it’s cheaper to play in Goa than abroad. Each of the three functioning off-shore casinos get a footfall of around a 1,000 visitors per day. Visitors have to report at the casino counters along the Panjim riverfront and are then taken on speedboats to the anchored casinos in the river.
Goan Minister, Manohar Parrikar, was swept to power 18 months ago with the first clear majority in two decades, after he had campaigned on a promise to close down all casinos in the state because they were ‘corrupting Goan culture.’ Once in power, however, Mr. Parrikar performed a U-turn stating that the industry was indispensable to the Goan economy.
Now members of the Congress government, currently in the opposition in Goa, are demanding the closure of the casinos. “The opposition wants to stop casinos so that the revenue collection of the government suffers (referring to the tight financial conditions of the Goa government after the ban on mining),” alleges Mr. Parrikar.
Each of the offshore casinos sees average net profit earnings of Rs1.75 crore per day, while each of the 10+ onshore casinos earn Rs3.75 lakh to Rs4 lakh per day. Official figures peg the turnover of Goan casinos at Rs1,000 crore annually. The Goa government received Rs135 crore in taxes in 2012-13, apart from Rs17.96 crore from entry fees, Rs57.5 crore from license fees, Rs53.29 crore from entertainment tax, Rs2crore as VAT and Rs2.2 crore as excise license fees.
