Betting in Goa

Story by George Oborne on 2011-09-19 09:54:51

Goa was the first Indian state to legalise gambling and give licences to casinos, the legal betting age is 18. It is the smallest state in India and relies heavily on the tourism industry. In the late eighties and early nineties Goa began to lose it's dominance in the tourism market due to the illegality of gambling there. Tourists, especially domestic Indian tourist were going to Nepal, where gambling is legal, instead of to Goa.

Therefore in 1992, the state of Goa issued licences to five star hotels which allowed them to run slot machines. In 1996, this policy was developed to allow certain cruise ships to offer table games such as roulette, baccarat and poker. There are strict policies on this and no table games are allowed to be played in on land casinos. The casino cruise ships, however, rarely leave their moorings and can be accessed fairly easily.

There are a limited number of cruise ships and there are currently just four in use in Goa. Therefore demand is high and there are high entry costs. It usually costs around 3,500 rupees to enter a casino (of which around 2,000 goes to the government). However, players intending on playing with high stakes are often given free entry. On top of this entry tax casinos must also pay an annual tax of 5 crore rupees to the government. The government therefore have a large incentive to keep casinos running in Goa.

Both online gambling and sports gambling have remained illegal and so there is still a large amount of illegal gambling that occurs in Goa. For example, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup a large betting syndicate was raided by police. The syndicate was well developed and took bets over the phone, over the internet and also in person in a room where there were two televisions on which people could watch the football. People also often use foreign online gambling websites such as bet365 and William Hill.

In 2009, there were calls for gambling to be made illegal again, it was discussed in parliament, but no action was taken and licences are still being granted. The biggest company involved is Delta Corp and recent reports from stockbroker Alchemy suggest that by March 2013 Delta Corp will be making profits of 135 crore rupees from a total revenue of 575 crore rupees. Both the government and the tourist industry are set to benefit from the continuing rise of gambling in Goa. Meanwhile, onshore companies such as the Marriott and Majestic hotel groups are both investing in casino equipment for their hotels.