Facing Opposition jibes about his proximity to Goa’s influential casino lobby, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said his Government in working on a policy to relocate offshore casinos to designated zones on-land in the next three years, while also hinting at capping the number of offshore casinos in the Mandovi River to five.
Parrikar however said, while he opposed the casino industry while in the Opposition, the slew of permissions given by erstwhile Congress-governments to the casino operators ended with the industry being pushed onto him as a ‘fait-accompli’ and that shutting down casinos would amount to a drop in investor confidence.
Parrikar, while responding to a debate on home ministry-related issues, also said that the new policy aimed at banning Goans from visiting casinos.
“We are also ensuring that in three years time, the casinos in the river, on a vessel, will cease to exist. There will be amendment to the act in the next assembly, where the vessel portion will be extinguished at a particular point,” Parrikar told the State Assembly on Monday.
“The act will have a power to ensure that no Goan can visit casinos. Government will have powers to cap casinos in a particular area. I can assure to cap casinos in this state.
The sixth casino will never enter Mandovi. We are capping it, under this act, at five,” Parrikar said.
The State has five operational offshore casinos anchored in the Mandovi River off Panaji, while nine function from the numerous five star hotels located
in the State.
Parrikar said as an opposition legislator he was against the casino industry and had promised to shut them down, but was forced to allow the casinos operators to continue, because of the monies they had invested in their business venture in Goa.
“A fait accompli was created. We definitely opposed. We also assured that we will cancel licence, because that time there were no ships... When any person invests money, a state has a responsibility for continuity. Because he invests a money in the venture. Right wrong, you may not like him,” Parrikar said.
The Chief Minister however hinted, that there was a possibility of phasing out the casino industry in Goa and said that Opposition leaders would be taken into confidence to evolve a long-term strategy for tackling Goa’s casino industry.