India’s state cabinet approves further 6 month extension for offshore casinos operating in River Mandovi

The?extension was approved from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021?

On Wednesday,?The?Goa state cabinet granted floating?casinos ?another six months’ extension to continue operations?in?Mandovi?River,?between?Panaji?and?Betim,?as it is yet?unable to resolve any alternative location where they can be transferred.?

A cabinet note said that the home department, along with captain of ports, had tentatively identified four sites for their relocation — the mouth of?Mandovi, near?Aguada?jail, two locations on the?Zuari, and in the?Chapora.?

In line with this, the government said that the?identified sites found?were?to be “technically not feasible”, the issue of relocating them from the?Mandovi?could?not be?finalised.

This has led the state government?to grant?extensions to the six casinos?to continue their operations in?Mandovi?over the past couple of years,?subject to the condition that they shall shift out whenever a feasible alternate site is?finalised?by the government.?

The note?also stated?that objections had been sought from the public on the proposed sites, and that several were received from various individuals and village panchayats, in favor of the move of the offshore casinos.?

Back in February,?Goa Ports Minister Michael Lobo had argued for an opposite approach, calling for the offshore casinos to remain where they are and for additional casinos to be licensed in other areas, as a tourism and revenue boosting measure.?

Sawant?ordered the suspension operations of?all of Goa’s casinos – both the six ship-board operations and the handful of land-based venues in upscale hotels?–?in mid-March?to combat?the proliferation of COVID-19.?Although he has permitted a partial easing in April 20.?

India’s largest casino?operator?Delta Corp?–?which?operates three casino vessels in Goa?–?saw its revenue and profit slide for the three months ending 31 March, the fourth quarter of its fiscal year.?

In May, the company?reported that revenue was down 10 percent year-on-year to INR1.91bn ($25.3m) during the quarter, while?pre-tax profits fell 49 percent to INR290.4m.?

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