These aren’t fun and games. Casinos cannot be allowed to be super-spreaders anymore

When the current ‘curfew’ is lifted at 7 am on June 7, one of the first things one must watch out for is whether the casinos are getting reopened. It is amply clear that by all accounts and countless reports they have been given preferential treatment and allowed to be super-spreaders, open throughout, till the statewide curfew was imposed, even as Section 144 of CrPC and night curfew was in place.

THE QUESTION IS WHY SHOULD CASINOS GET PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 

Why should Goa and Goans allow people, mostly from neighbouring and other States to come in hordes to the casinos, even as ordinary Goans are suffering and dying and trying to remain indoors, at the cost of their jobs and earning opportunities? Poor Goans suffer and lose much more when curfews happen than cash-rich casino operators.

Anybody who knows how the casino ecosystem works – and the government knows it the best – understands that even the basic precautions are difficult to take. What social distancing can you observe when sitting around a table with dealers dealing cards and chips? These are not remote-controlled. Can the government confirm if they even asked the casinos to keep their bars shut and not serve alcohol to enhance chances of contact and exposure? Do you think casinos would have functioned without their bars being open, even as all bars in Goa were shut?  

Herald has pointed out instances of preferential treatment being given to the casinos. Your paper reported in April “Sources told Herald that those visiting the casinos are allowed to disembark thrice during the night curfew time – midnight, 3 am and 6 am – the last at the hour the curfew ends. A month ago when a few casino employees tested positive for COVID-19 there were demands from every quarter to shut down these operations. The government did not heed these. 

31 workers of a casino tested positive. Yet the casino’s operations did not shut down. And then there was a spike in cases, in buildings where casino staff working for casinos reside”

Health professionals had called for a temporary halt of super-spreader casinos, but the Chief Minister and his government refused to pay heed. Did the CM not understand that, unlike other industrial workplaces, casinos cannot function without close contact with people?

Meanwhile, Karnataka, governed by a BJP government understood the risk of their own people going to casinos and coming back as health risks back home in their towns and villages. People from Bagalkot, Hubli, Dharvad, Chitradurga and other North Karnataka towns commute to Goa, only to gamble in casinos. The Commissioner Health and Family Welfare of the government of Karnataka, called upon the Deputy Commissioner of North Karnataka, to set up check posts and strictly check  those returning from Goa and ascertain casino visitors and screen them.

Shockingly, Goa’s Health Department at no stage called for casinos to stop functioning even when cases were detected of casino employees and yes, by some reports, players too. Therefore the danger does not end in casinos or any super-spreader environment. It actually begins there.

And what is the overall impact of this? The poor and those who cannot afford top-class treatment suffer the most. Once super spreading happens, the poor were at the mercy of a collapsed health system with no beds, oxygen supplies and even crucial medicines. The Health Department has faced serious allegations of “scams” like that of purchasing medicines from one private firm bypassing established tender protocols. Recently, a well-known dialysis expert from Canacona, had made clear and specific allegations on a big scam in the purchase of ventilators.

Irrespective of the efficacy of these allegations, when medicines and equipment aren’t available or costly, the poor suffer. 

Importantly, super spreader events force more numbers of the poor to be at the mercy of this failing health system.

Therefore, the government, under the excuse of opening up economic activity, cannot allow small businesses to suffer but allow casinos to run, till the pandemic is virtually over and we return to the safe stage as we were in November and early December. To even think of restarting this activity now is not just uncalled for but goes against what experts, health professionals and almost every right-thinking Goan concurs, i.e. casinos should remain closed till the pandemic is under absolute control.

When it comes to giving voice to the voiceless and make the powerful hear, Herald will never abdicate its duty. And it calls upon the Government of Goa, to think of people and their lives first. The economy will revive only when people do.