'Goa casino laws should emulate London, not Vegas'

Goa should look to London and not Las Vegas for inspiration when it comes to setting up a regulatory mechanism to control growing casino operations here, said Panaji Mayor Surendra Furtado Friday.

Speaking to IANS, Furtado said Panaji, a riverine city which is virtually the capital of India's casino industry, should not emulate the world's sin-city Las Vegas when it comes to setting up of the proposed Gaming Commission, which was expected to keep tabs on casino functioning.

"Las Vegas is a city of casinos, for casinos and by casinos. There is nothing else but casinos there. Goa certainly does not have a profile like that. Here casinos are only a part of the offering. We have culture, environment and so many other things," said Furtado.

Gambling in Las Vegas, in the western US state of Nevada, is regulated by the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC), which lays the law and implements it in Las Vegas's 70-odd casinos, which represent a nearly $20 billion industry.

The NGC decides on the minimum pay-out ratio, a key component in casino operations worldwide. A pay-out ratio is used to determine how much money a game of chance offers to gamblers, in comparison to the money earned by the House (as the casino operation managers are referred to).

The mayor said that following NGC might not be healthy for Goa, but norms put in place by the Gaming Commission in London would be more appropriate.

"Everything in Las Vegas favours gambling because the economy depends on gambling money. The London gambling scenario is more like Goa, where casinos are only one part of what it offers," Furtado said.

The Gambling Commission was set up under the Gambling Act 2005 to regulate commercial gambling in Britain.

Currently, barring licensing and other administrative matters, there is no agency in the Indian state which is empowered to monitor gaming operations in a casino.

The Gaming Commission was first proposed in 2010 by the Congress-led coalition government, under which casinos mushroomed.

The proposal, though publicly welcomed by the casino industry, never saw the light of day until incumbent Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that the Gaming Commission would be set up by August this year.

The Commission would not only have regulatory and penalising powers, but would force casino managements to ban gambling addicts from hitting the gaming floor.

Helplines numbers would also be launched for those who want to quit gambling, he added.

Civil society groups have been lobbying for a Gaming Commission for years now, because of the increased proliferation of casino operations in Goa.

"No gaming commissioner appointed and no mechanism in place to check illegalities suggest that the government is in connivance with casino owners in the illegal transactions," claimed convenor of Aam Aurat aur Aadmi against Gambling (AAAG) Sabina Martins.

Goa has four functioning offshore casinos on board ships anchored in the Mandovi river and nearly a dozen onshore casinos housed in the numerous five-star resorts dotting the beach state.

The first offshore casino in Goa started operations in 2001.

Officially, Goa's casino industry sees a Rs.900-1,000 crore turnover per annum -- but sources say, it is actually way above that figure.

Official figures, placed in the Goa Assembly, say casinos -- both offshore and onshore -- paid the state exchequer Rs.135 crore by way of taxes for the financial year 2012-13. The government also earned Rs.17.96 crore in the form of entry fee; Rs.32.50 crore as annual licence fees from offshore casinos; and Rs.25 crore as annual licence fees from onshore casinos.

Besides, the state government collected Rs.53.29 crore as entertainment tax, Rs.2 crore as value-added tax, and Rs.1 crore as liquor licence fee from offshore casinos, while onshore casinos paid Rs.1.2 crore as liquor licence fee.