PANAJI
The State Cabinet on Friday passed a resolution to define several terms used in the Goa Gambling Act in a bid to give a clear meaning of these terms which are mentioned in the Act.
Addressing media persons after the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that terms like area, casino, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, offshore casino, on-shore casino and passenger capacity will now be clearly defined in the Act through an amendment.
Significantly, the term offshore as now defined in the amendment bill would now mean, “Any designated location in the sea, river and estuary within the jurisdiction of the Captain of Ports, Government of Goa."
The amendment seeks to scuttle several petitions pending before the Bombay High Court at Goa which have challenged the operation of “offshore” casinos in rivers, arguing that the term offshore means 12 nautical miles off the coast.
One such petition pending before the Bombay High Court at Goa is that filed by dentist Dr Aquaviva Fernandes who has said that “A vessel operating in River Mandovi can by no stretch of imagination be said to be a vessel offshore, as expressly stipulated in Section 13A of the Goa Act, 1976."
Since the term offshore was not defined in the Goa Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, the dictionary meaning of the term ‘offshore’ would apply.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the word as “situated at sea some distance from the shore”. Dr Aquaviva also attached the meanings as defined in four other dictionaries.
Further, he points to the fact that ‘offshore’ is defined in other Acts of the Indian Government which refers to the territorial waters of India “from the baseline to every point of which is at a distance of twelve nautical miles from the nearest point of the appropriate baseline”.
The bill which is expected to be enacted shortly, also defines live gaming as “the conduct of various games installed within the casino by humans, electronic gaming as the conduct of various games installed within a casino conducted by machine without any human element or by push of button of mechanical or electronic equipment.
An offshore casino has been defined as a casino operated in the designated passenger areas of the vessel; onshore casino meaning a casino operating in the area within the premises of a five-star hotel, and passenger capacity as the capacity of the vessel to take passengers as certified by the Captain of Ports, Goa.
