'Casino Capital' of India

Recently, as my wife and I were waiting for our luggage to appear on the carousel #1 at South Goa’s Dabolim airport, something caught my attention. I noticed all the airport trolleys advertised the ‘Majestic Pride - a casino that promised wholesome “ gaming and entertainment”. Later, as our hotel cab was speeding towards its destination in North Goa, I could not help noticing numerous billboards and hoardings of casinos along the road nudging tourists to visit and gamble. As the car was crossing the Mandovi (or Mahadayi) river bridge that connects Panaji and Parvorim, Samuel, the cab driver, suddenly glanced over his shoulder to me and stretched his hand to the left. Following his direction, I saw a giant white yacht at a distance anchored in the water glimmering in the morning sunshine. He said “Sir, that’s Majestic Pride”. The cab ride was a long one, and being a local, Samuel was an authority on Goa’s casinos and he was in a very good mood that day. So, while deftly cruising along NH 66 he shared with us the interesting history and evolution of Goa’s casino industry...

Tourism is a sustainable business in Goa. Tourists - both domestic and international - throng to this former Portuguese colony for its sun-kissed picturesque white-sand beaches (and shacks), heritage churches, (very) spicy cuisines, jaw droppingly low priced liquors and…casinos. Casinos are not only a tourism booster but also a revenue generator for the state government (through taxes and fees). In the FY 2018-19 Goa government’s collection from offshore and land-based casinos Rs 411 crore and keeps on increasing. 

The first casino appeared in Goa in 1999 due to an act called Public Gambling Act, 1976 which legalized casinos in the state. In India, apart from Goa you can visit casinos in the state of  Sikkim and the union territory of Daman and Diu. Today, Goa is crowned as the ‘casino capital of India’ because of its strong tourism-casino linkage for many tourists it is part of ‘must-do-while-in-Goa’ list. The state boasts of 14 casinos. Six ‘offshore’ casinos are in yachts anchored on Mandovi river and the remaining eight ‘onshore’ casinos are located in various five-star hotels. The difference between the two is crucial from a gambler’s point of view: you can play ‘live games’ (roulette, Blackjack) only in yacht-based casinos as hotel-based casinos offer only slot-machine games. The industry sees an average of daily footfall of roughly  15,000 per day and the visitors are mostly domestic tourists in the  age group 25-40 years.

However, not everything is hunky-dory in the land of casino. The casino industry in general and the river-based casinos in specific are the favorite punching bag of local population. Many locals and NGOs have labeled the casinos as a manifestation of “sin”, promoting “gambling addiction” among the locals (by law, casinos are tourist-only and locals are not allowed to enter, but is difficult to keep track),  “causing river pollution” and urged the government to save “the local culture”. As a result, it is decided that the ‘yacht casinos’ will be gradually phased in the near future and the work is on to decide on an alternative site by September 2022. 

So, if you are going to visit Goa after this deadline, what's your plan?

Image courtesy: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casinos_in_the_Mandovi_river_of_Panjim,_Goa,_India._1.jpg                                (Fredericknoronha, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)