No crime rate increase in Goa due to casino industry: Parrikar

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday asserted that there was no co-relation between the casino industry and the coastal state's crime rate.

He also informed the Goa legislative assembly that revenue earned from the casino industry had doubled over the last two fiscals.

To a question by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, who asked if the crime rate had increased in Goa due to casino operations, Parrikar said "No" in a written reply.

Parrikar, in his reply, also said that crime rate had decreased in the last three years, with 4,467 criminal cases reported in 2014, a total of 3,074 in 2015 and 2,693 in 2016.

There are currently five offshore casinos operating in the Mandovi river off Panaji, with a sixth getting ready to begin gambling operations.

There are also nearly a dozen onshore casinos which operate from the several five-star hotels, most of them located along the state's coastal fringes.

The Chief Minister also said that the revenue generated towards the state exchequer over the last three fiscals had increased substantially. While the state exchequer earned Rs 78.62 crore in 2014-16 from the casino industry in form of various taxes, in the year 2016-17, the state treasury earned Rs 161.96 crore.

--IANS

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