Goa backs out of casinos project

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

After all the hullabaloo, Goa may not have casinos after all.

The proposal for setting up offshore casinos in Goa may not materialise as Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane himself has opted out of it.

The plan to set up casinos had kicked off a controversy in the sunshine state with Bharatiya Janata Party and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party activists and environmental crusaders condemning the move.

"If the people think it is detrimental to Goan society in the long term, then we don't want to impose it on them for our short-term benefits," Rane said after a meeting of the state cabinet. He, however, clarified that this was not a cabinet decision, but his personal opinion.

In his incarnation as state home minister, Rane amended the Goa Public Gambling Act in July to allow casinos on board ships anchored one km away from the shore. Casino operators, he then said, would need to pay an annual license fee of Rs 10 million to the state government and a certain percentage of their monthly revenue.

The state government, however, made no further move to formulate rules for the applicants. Rane initially dismissed the opposition to the casinos, saying it was necessary to attract "high class tourists" to the state. On Thursday, he claimed that setting up casinos would not affect "high class tourism" as "such tourists don't prefer such kind of gambling."

Rane's statement must have as a surprise to Deputy Chief Minister Wilfred de Souza, who is also the state's tourism minister. Two days ago, Dr de Souza, asserted that casinos, golf courses and similar amusements were a necessity to promote "high class tourism."

"There are many such ways of taxing people to earn revenue," Rane said on Thursday; in July, the chief minister had portrayed the casinos as a major revenue generating proposal for the state.

The state cabinet decided on Thursday to impose a tourist tax of Rs 300 on every charter tourist arriving in Goa.

Goa attracts around 70,000 charter tourists every year. The state, the first to thus tax foreign tourists, is expected to earn over Rs 20 million annually from this exercise.