Our lead story in the previous issue “Goa’s Casinos, it’sall black”, expectedly kicked up a storm with the industry reacting very sharplyto what they felt was a an “unsubstantiated” assault on their home base andstriping it off all layers of decency it had and portraying a false picture ofdecadence and illegality.
Without going into a prolonged defense or justification ofour package, because there is no felt need to do either, the reactions provethat that the real concerns aren’t really a priority and should not come in theway of business.
The casino owners have a clear line of thinking and fromtheir business point of view, let’s give it to them. And the thinking is this “It is a washing machine or a laundry from which clean money emerges. Thismachine has nothing to with the extent of the dirt on the currency that camein, or whether there was dirt at all. It tells us to look at the dirt levels onthe casino floor and it is here that they claim they are spot free. While wewill never reach a backslapping agreement on this, in the light of commonsensedomain knowledge, the concerns are larger.
The casino industry cannot limit our confines of inquiry tothe limited floor area of the casino. Such quantities of wealth that flows inneed to be justified by the players and the authorities. The casinos do not andcannot do it even if for arguments sake, we say they genuinely try to. For instance,do you ask every builder to check if every rupee that he gets for the plots,buildings and villas that he sells is accounted for? Does a car dealer ask whenbuyers come and buy BMWs with a fifty percent cash payment?
While casinos cannot be absolved and their role is complicitand we’ll get to that in a bit, let us address the issue of black money flowinginto casinos. The income tax and the commercial tax authorities need a clearerand far more transparent assessment of how much money is actually rolled orplayed on every table of every casino every day. Do we believe casinos whenthey say that every chip is accounted for and all books are clean? Do we knowif there is one book “ the official one and other books “ the real butun-official ones. The casinos are uncomfortable with such questions but to befair to them, they have demanded and welcomed a Gaming Commission to superviseall these activities. The government of Goa needs to expedite this post haste.However, the gaming commission should have people from the industry in thecommission who know the business inside out. Because if there is money in theoperations, there can be allegations of deceit in the operations too. Theindustry must surrender itself to independent scrutiny if it is clean.
A far bigger failure is that of the government. It needed tohave the will to see that checks are needed to trace so much of money flowingin. This needs a multiagency, multilevel operation which no one conducts.
The other issue that we raised was the manner in which fundflow is facilitated through a network of junket operators. Their presence isunquestionable and their links with casinos undeniable, but it’s a nebulouslink. They make it easier for big players to play with big money and casinosaccept these connections because it’s good for their business. The junketsdon’t restrict themselves to links outside the casinos, but are involved withthe casinos. It’s all hush hush and off the record. This is where casinos arecomplicit. We chose to put it on thetable. It’s up to the casinos to figure if this business decision is legal ornot. If yes, best of luck to them, if partly yes or no, then this needs to becleaned up. Denying their existence completely is a travesty of truth.
This industry indeed has a place in the tourism space of anygood destination. But to make this space really theirs, they must not be cleanbut seem to clean. Casinos have a long way to go before they become Caesar’swives who should be above suspicion. But in becoming so, they will enhancetheir credibility and block attacks and criticism to enable clean entertainingbusiness. But for now, show us the money and where it came from.
