India: casinos in Goa allowed to reopen
Authorities have announced that casinos in Goa will be allowed to reopen this week for those who have been fully vaccinated.
India.- Pramod Sawant, chief minister of Goa, has announced that casinos will be allowed to reopen for those who are fully vaccinated or provide a negative Covid-19 test. The government has also allowed the reopening of spas and massage parlours.
According to the Indian Express, Sawant said: “The (state government’s) expert committee compared the (Covid-19) positivity rate over the last two-three weeks and it has been under 2 per cent.
“In order to revive economic activity and tourism activity, casinos have been allowed to reopen on Monday with strict SOPs (standard operating procedures).”
Delta Corp‘s casinos in Goa have been closed since April 29. In May the company asked authorities for a waiver on licence fees due to the impact on its venues.
Delta Corp reported a consolidated net loss of Rs28.93 crore for the first quarter of the year. That compares to a profit of Rs57.77 crore in the previous quarter.
Net sales declined 64.1 per cent to Rs75.87 crore when compared to the fourth quarter of last year, but were up 57 per cent year-on-year.
Shrinivas Nayak, director of the Majestic Pride Group, said: “In the first lockdown, we were shut for about seven months. This time, it was for about four months and 20 days.
“We have nearly 2,500 employees and we could not have laid them off. That is not human. We had no revenue but we still had to bear 70-80 per cent of our expenses. The lockdown was uncertain and it kept extending week by week.”
Delta Corp gets permission for integrated resort in Goa
Delta Corp has said that Goa’s Investment Promotion Board has approved the company’s project for a new integrated resort in Pernem.
Last December, the company announced the acquisition of around 100 acres of land in Pernem, Goa for the development as it seeks to shift operations from floating casinos to land-based casino resorts.
Delta Corp currently owns three of Goa’s six floating casinos. It also has a casino in Sikkim and a five-star resort in Daman, for which it has applied for a casino licence. The company is also seeking to expand into Nepal.
For many years, the government has been seeking to move Goa’s floating casinos from the Mandovi River. Delta Corp said its land-based IR project will include hotels, a convention centre, a multiplex cinema, a water park, retail facilities as well as an electronic casino to boost tourism in Pernem.
