Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to keep a watch on casino operations.
“When the Election Commission has raised serious concern, there has to be some substance to it,” Parsekar told media persons responding to a question. “I have spoken to DGP in this regard. I have asked him to keep a close watch on the activities in casinos so as to ensure that they are not being misused to distribute money during the election,” he added.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, on Thursday, had expressed concern about casinos being used to park illegal money for the elections. Zaidi had asked the Chief Secretary to keep a watch on the activities at casinos using law and order machinery.
Responding to a question whether casinos can be misused for distribution of cash, Parsekar said, “I don’t have much knowledge. I am not supposed to be expert in all fields. But since Election Commission has suggested it means there should be substance.”
The Cabinet on Friday accorded approval to define certain terms such as area, casinos, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, off-shore casino, on-shore casino, passenger capacity, in the Goa Public Gambling Act 1976, so as to give a clear meaning to the terms as they were not defined earlier.
Asked about the status of the Gaming Commission, Parsekar said the file is pending with the Law Department.
Speaking on the recent Supreme Court decision to ban sale of liquor on highways, Parsekar said the State government is studying the judgement. He said the impact will be more on Goa due to the number of liquor shops. “We need to explore the possibility of re-locating such liquor shops,” the Chief Minister said.
