Casinos have made Goa sin city of India: Congress

Goa Congress president Luizinho Faleiro on Monday said casinos have made Goa the sin city of India and slammed the Laxmikant Parsekar-led government in this regard.

Faleiro said the BJP-led coalition government had betrayed the people of the state by going back on its promise to do away with casinos.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a social function in the state capital, Faleiro, a former Goa chief minister, also said that the government had failed to crack down on prostitution which, he claimed, was rampant in the state.

"This is the Goa which we want to tourists to come to? Goa has become a sin city of India with its casino industry. Prostitution is also rampant in the state," Faleiro said.

Goa has four operational offshore casinos besides several other onshore casinos. Goa is one of the very few states in India, where casino gambling is legal.

Ahead of the 2012 state assembly polls, the BJP, led by Manohar Parrikar, had led a sustained campaign against the casino industry and had promised that, if voted to power, its government would rid the Mandovi of the casinos.

However, once in power, successive BJP-led coalition governments, led by Parrikar and Parsekar, respectively, have maintained that the casino industry is essential to the economy of the state and discontinuing with casinos would send a bad signal to investors who were keen on setting up businesses in Goa.

Faleiro also said that the erstwhile Congress-led coalition government (from 2007-2012) had erred in granting licences to casino operations in Goa.