TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The MV Horseshoe offshore casino was cleared for operations by the Home department after the proposal was given the all clear by the government Friday.
The 87 by 22 mts vessel mired in “will he, won’t he” and under what conditions and under intense media scrutiny, has been in its parking slot since May end will probably receive the order by Saturday allowing the transfer of licence from one vessel to another, Home department officials said.
“I have given the order to the under secretary to send the letter,” additional secretary Sanjiv Gadkar told Herald Friday, adding that the order has come from the government to allow the transfer of one vessel to another.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had confirmed on Wednesday that the file was with him and had been sent on Monday from the department.
Earlier permissions had been received by Delta Corp from the Captain of Ports, (one inspection has been conducted), Goa State Pollution Control Board. The vessel needs consent to operate as well as consent for operating its restaurants. The Horseshoe has 1,500 live gaming positions, restaurants and VVIP and VIP gaming areas.
The chief minister who is the home minister is on record saying that the casino licences are given to companies and not to individual vessels and that the casino licence was a transfer and that there was no new licence being given.
Delta Corp Ltd officials had told Herald a couple of days back that they had put in the file and they were expecting the licences this week.
Delta Corp holds three of the five operational offshore casino licences in Goa and Horseshoe, that is supposed to replace the Caravela will double the number of gaming positions currently on Casino Royale which is also owned by Delta Corp. Horseshoe had obtained permission from CoP to enter the Mandovi and sailed in after Caravela moved out.
The cabinet had cleared the new casino policy a couple of days back, which said that no new offshore casino licences would be issued and operating offshore casinos would be given two years to operate in the Mandovi and after their current licences expire they would have to find an alternate place to anchor their vessels.
