Amongst the many controversies generated in Goa day in and day out, “Offshore Casinos” tops the list, may be because their visibility on the beautiful Mandovi river front is an eyesore. Otherwise, there is no reason why the “Onshore Casinos” in operation in some of the five-star properties in Goa are not considered as much social evil as their counterparts in the waters. As the pre-election fever hots up in the months ahead and the blame game goes on uninterrupted, I thought of sharing with your esteemed readers the Casino Episode, to which I have been, in a way, privy.
No sooner I was posted as Director of Tourism Goa on 01/09/1990 during the PDF Government headed by the late Luis Proto Barbosa, the then Minister for Tourism Churchill Alemao summoned me and said let us start casinos in Goa. Just to discourage him from this adventure, I said this will require permission from Govt. of India. He said OK, draft a letter from him. Accordingly, a letter seeking permission of the Govt. of India was dispatched to Arun Nehru (since deceased), the then Central Minister for Tourism under the signature of Churchill Alemao. Promptly came the reply, which I re-collect verbatim as under
“As a matter of Policy, Govt. of India has decided not to permit Casinos anywhere in India”
The above reply totally silenced Churchill Alemao who did not raise this issue again during his short lived one year tenure as Minister for Tourism.
After a lull of two years, some wise legal brain appears to have given a brilliant idea to Ravi Naik, who succeeded the late Luis Proto Barbosa as Chief Minister, to amend the local law – The Goa, Daman & Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976 in such a way that nowhere the word “Casino” should prevail, obviously with the intention of circumventing the negative reply received from Govt. of India. Accordingly, by Amendment Act 11 of 1992, the original Act was amended “Authorizing any game of electronic amusement / slot machines in five-star hotels”. The Licensing Authority specified for the purpose is the Under Secretary (Home) so that the Chief Minister who always doubles up as the Home Minister can have direct control over this activity.
Then, after the Government headed by Pratapsingh Rane assumed the reigns, a further amendment was carried out by Amendment Act 13 of 1996 “Authorizing such table games and gaming on board in vessels off shore”, without bothering in the least to define the offshore limit, may be because the vessels in operation in river Mandovi will not be in a position to sustain the weather in the monsoons if they are re-located to the high seas. A leading hotelier from South Goa who brought the first vessel “Caravela” was, in a way, the driving force behind this particular amendment.
Interestingly, around this time, Digvijay Singh, the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (presently AICC General Secretary in charge of Goa Desk), had been to Goa and was putting up in Bambolim Beach Resort owned by Goa’s Table Tennis Champion of the bygone era Vero Nunes. On a certain Saturday, Nunes put me through to the VIP who in his typical North Indian accent said “Kamat Sab, App logone Goame Casino start kiya hai”. Taking shelter of a bit of diplomacy, I said “No Sir”. He then questioned me as to what is going on then, to which my response was Govt. of India in fact did not permit us to start casinos in Goa. But then, with a hearty laugh, he said what is actually going there is “Casinos”. My obvious reaction was “no comments”. The VIP then asked me whether I can make available the Goa Gambling Act with the Amendments. Like a good bureaucrat, I collected the Act with amendments from the Govt. Printing Press, drove to Bambolim on my two-wheeler and passed on the documents to Digvijay Singh who disclosed that he required the legislation to start casinos in Khajuraho. What I gathered later was the moment he made this announcement in Bhopal, there was hue and cry in the Press, which ultimately led to nipping the idea in the bud.
The perusal of Government of India, Ministry of Tourism website reveal that as of today there are 12 five-star and 13 five star-deluxe properties in Goa registered with them. However, my information reveal that presently only 9 out of these 25 properties offer onshore gaming facilities which are mostly patronized by up market domestic tourists from other parts of India, who otherwise used to make a beeline to Casinos in Nepal. As regards offshore, 4 such vessels are presently in operation in River Mandovi. Together, I understand that the Department of Commercial Taxes generated Rs 128 crores as revenue during the financial year 2015-16.
Being the only location in India where such gaming facilities are offered, Goa has admittedly become the destination for “Casinos”. Although not regulated by the Goa Registration of Tourist Trade Act, 1982 as a Tourism related activity, the fact remains that it has become one of the major economic activities on which, besides actual manpower employed on the vessels, the other arms of the tourism industry like air travel, hotel accommodation, tourist transport, conducted sightseeing tours with guides, river cruises, adventure sports, etc sustain and thrive. It is not for nothing that during weekends, Goa-bound air tickets from leading metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore sore high. Same is the case with the return tickets from Goa on late Sundays or early Mondays. In fact, the longer the weekend, the more the cascading effect of the economic activities listed above.
(The author was the ex-Director of Tourism Goa from September 1990 to April 1999)
