Goa to examine casino industry
The Indian state’s CM said that the casino industry in the territory could soon go cashless, therefore it will be examined.
India.- Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday that the casino industry is at risk of going cashless. Goa has been in the spotlight for several months now, as the off shore casinos are in the middle of the discussion of whether they should be relocated or not.
“However, the issue will be examined as per the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976, and rules framed thereunder,” said Parrikar to BJP legislator, Alina Saldanha, in a written reply at the monsoon session of the Goa assembly, as The New Indian Express reported. The legislator had asked Parrikar if the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in Goa had contemplated prohibiting all cash casino transactions, and called the use of money at casino tables a “major loophole.”
Last month, the local chief minister revealed during the state legislative assembly that the five offshore casinos operating in the Mandovi river will be moved to a “special entertainment zone” out of the water within the next three years. The government is working on new gaming policies that eliminates casino vessels from the language, making sure that floating casinos cannot exist in the state anymore. The new measures will be applied to the five existing off-shore casinos.
