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HomePoliticsThe big issue Goa parties always bet on to win power

The big issue Goa parties always bet on to win power

Both Congress and BJP governments in Goa have fuelled the growth of casinos while in power, but vehemently demanded their removal while in the opposition.

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Mumbai: The first thing that greets visitors to Goa as soon as they deplane and enter the airport through the aero-bridge is a big glossy advertisement of an offshore casino on the Mandovi river.

Goa is one of the very few places in India, besides Sikkim and Daman & Diu, that has casinos, both onshore in five-star hotels as well as offshore, inside vessels docked on the Mandovi river promenade in Panaji.

For tourists, these casinos are another reason to visit Goa, besides its clear sandy beaches, buzzing nightlife and a free-wheeling culture.

But for Goans, the offshore casinos and their glitzy, chandelier-topped glamour world of playing chips, cash and liquor are an eyesore that are polluting their placid river, invading their culture and destroying families by luring the state’s population into gambling.

Meanwhile, for politicians across parties, the casinos are a poll issue whenever there is an election around the corner, but they become a strong revenue-fetching industry when parties come to power.

With bypolls to the Panaji Assembly constituency on 19 May, necessitated by CM Manohar Parrikar’s death, the offshore casinos have once again become a talking point for all major parties.

Anti-casino sentiment

Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have had a contentious history of dealing with Goa’s casinos.

The governments of both parties have fuelled the growth of casinos while in power and vehemently demanded their removal from the Mandovi river while in opposition.

Ahead of the Panaji bypoll, Congress candidate Atanasio Monserrate has promised to remove casinos from the Mandovi within hundred days of being elected.

Another significant candidate in the fray, Subhash Velingkar, the former chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Goa unit who was ousted following his differences with the BJP-led state government, has also promised to clear Panaji’s shores of casinos. Velingkar is contesting as a candidate of his outfit Goa Suraksha Manch.

The anti-casino sentiment is popular among Panaji voters, and retaining the constituency is a prestige issue for the BJP as it was Parrikar’s seat. So, in an attempt to fend off the opposition’s barbs about the BJP-led government not acting against casinos, party’s state president Vinay Tendulkar wrote to his own government earlier this week, asking it to not renew the licences of casinos after they expire.

“The Panaji business community has a lot of vested interest in casinos. Hotels are full, taxis get business, eateries work. But still, it is definitely one of the most heated issues across Goa,” said Cleofato Coutinho, a Goa-based political commentator and a legal expert.

“People see the casinos as an eyesore. Nobody can enjoy the old Mandovi. They are seen as polluting the river. They are seen as encouraging sin in Goa, they give a dirty name to Goa’s tourism industry and bring in a lot of other elements along with gambling. Both the Congress and BJP have spoken against the casinos, but the Congress started them and the BJP continued them,” Coutinho said.

He added that sectoral casino lobbies have always had a strong grip on Goa governments. “Earlier it was the bus lobby, then the mining lobby, and now it is the casino lobby,” he said.


Also readWhy the buzz in Goa is all about state bypolls not Lok Sabha elections


The casino industry 

Goa has six offshore casinos, dominated by two companies — Delta Corp and Pride Group — and a number of onshore ones. Offshore casinos have live gaming with people playing against a dealer, while the onshore ones are restricted to electronic gaming.

Politicians say offshore casinos have mushroomed as the government could not permit live gaming on land, fearing that it might make all sorts of gambling, including matka, legal.

It was the Congress government that brought casinos to Goa by first amending the Goa Public Gambling Act in 1992 to allow slot machines in five-star hotels, and later in 1996 amending it again to bring offshore casinos. The licences, too, were allotted during the Congress regime, while the BJP, especially Parrikar who led a rally against casinos in Panaji, staunchly opposed them.

The anti-casino agenda was one of the major issues that propelled the BJP to victory in the 2012 Assembly polls. However, once in power, the government renewed the casinos’ licences and even made their transfer possible, saying they bring revenue to the government and boost Goa’s tourism industry.

“Everyone noticed that Jaydev Mody of Deltin casinos was prominently seated at Parrikar’s swearing-in ceremony. If Parrikar didn’t do it, these fellows who are running the government have no potential to do it,” said Congress MLA Reginald Alex.

“Revenue from casinos can be ramped up if licences are auctioned, but whatever is happening now is to only protect the interests of a few players. It is a money game.”

The BJP-led government has been talking about a casino policy with regulation for offshore casinos, banning entry to Goans and shifting these casinos either deep in the sea or to designated live gaming zones on land. But, with no concrete plans yet, the state recently renewed licences of offshore casinos for six months.

“The Congress gave permission to this industry. At that time didn’t it foresee what’s going to happen? The BJP’s stand now is that we have to do something about the offshore casinos without disrupting any stakeholders. The practical solution is to shift these offshore casinos to a more convenient location and that’s what we have asked the government to do,” said Tendulkar.

“A lot of investment and money has gone into setting up and running the industry. If we just shut it down, investors will be wary of coming to Goa,” he added.


Also readManohar Parrikar, IIT-B graduate & RSS worker who helped fortify BJP in Goa


 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Casinos are the lifeline of Goa , if government ban Casinos Kerala will immensely benefit in tourism as Kerala beaches are far better than Goan beaches in every count.

  2. Goa’s economy has suffered immensely due to the ban on mining. The more austere would say these casinos too are a source of pollution. However, they keep juice flowing through the economy. If the logistics are not forbidding, they could be shifted from the river to the ocean. Some people have also made an issue of people sunbathing on the beaches. Goans should figure which side their pao is buttered.

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