Despite the demand from a section of people to shift the vessels from the river, the government did nothing in the last seven months, except to renew the permission to allow the casinos to stay in River Mandovi for another half year.
Successive State governments have been under pressure to relocate the casinos due to demands from the opposition as well as civil society groups. Is this government sincere in desiring to shift the casinos out of River Mandovi or is just buying time till the next election? Since 2012, every chief minister, be it Manohar Parrikar, Laxmikant Parsekar or Dr Pramod Sawant have only made promises on this account but there have been no results. Panjim MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate is the new edition to the list. During the campaign for the by-election in Panjim last year, he had promised to move the off-shore casinos out of the Mandovi within 100 days if elected. Well, not just 100 days almost 500 days have passed since his victory and there is no sign of the vessels moving out of capital town.
Now with Unlock 5, the government has granted permissions to casinos to resume operations from November 1. However, one has to see whether the Corporation of City of Panaji too takes a U-turn on the casinos. Panjim Mayor Uday Madkaikar had said that the corporation would not renew the licences of off-shore casinos once they expire. Not once or twice, the Mayor has often reiterated that the trade licences will not be renewed. Chief Minister Sawant was nonchalant about CCP not renewing licences saying, “Why would they not renew licences if rules are followed?” clearly indicating what is in store ahead.
During the last seven months, the government had a golden opportunity to move the casinos out as they were all shut. The casinos would have not have faced any major logistical issues too. But that would have been possible if the government had strong will to do so. Also, nobody has answered what happened to the Ports Minister’s tall claim that one casino would be moved to Aguada Bay. This statement was made after a joint inspection with Panjim MLA Monserrate but that promise too seems to have fallen flat. Not just moving the casinos out of Mandovi, Monserrate had promised during the campaign that all casinos would be brought on land – but there has been no development in this regard either. The State had enough time to shift the casinos. The opposition – Congress, Goa Forward, MGP and Independents – too are quiet about the casinos issue.
Now that the government has already decided to reopen casinos, another important issue that arises is, how will the State monitor social distancing on off-shore casinos? The government has granted permission only on the condition that casinos have to operate with 50 per cent capacity. So how will this be monitored? Casinos are known to run above capacity at times and if this occurs now, the off-shore casinos could become super-spreaders of the novel coronavirus.
One important aspect is that the State is facing a massive financial crunch since the closure of mining. Sawant himself has said that people should not ignore the fact that the gaming industry is now a big contributor to the economy in Goa. The government generates Rs 350 crore from licence fees apart from 15 per cent of revenue and a fee of Rs 500 per person entering the casino. So is that the consideration in reopening casinos?
