Hospitality firm Hotel Leela Ventures is negotiating with the MDLR Group to sell-off its offshore casino in Goa, a senior company official said today.
“We are negotiating with the MDLR Group to sell our offshore casino in Goa,” Leela Group General Manager (Corporate Communication) Mithu Basu said. The deal, which is not yet signed, will be tabled for approval at the company’s board meet on June 27 in Mumbai, Basu said.
Leela intends to sell the casino since off-shore casinos are not the company’s core competence, Basu said. Hotel Leela had acquired an offshore casino licence from the Goa government in 2006 and spent over Rs 4.5 crore to set up the land-based infrastructure for a floating jetty, besides the Rs 5-crore casino fee every year.
Leela Group halted operations of its Casino Rio recently since it was located several kilometers away from Panaji and was, hence, unable to attract customers.
Besides, large-scale opposition from local fishermen in 2007 had forced resort owners to relocate their offshore casino from the resort adjoining river Sal to river Mandovi in Panaji.
