THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Tuesday demanded when casino operations in the state would stop.
The Curtorim MLA posed the question in the Assembly, which was taken up by the Home Minister Pramod Sawant as an unstarred question.
In fact, the legislator demanded to know "the date by which the casino operations in the state will be stopped", to which Sawant replied that the casino policy was under consideration.
Currently, there are six offshore and eight onshore casinos operating in the state, according to Sawant's reply.
One onshore casino licensee i.e. Vision Dempo Hospitality and Estates Pvt. Ltd., had discontinued its operations w.e.f. 31 March 2018 after the increase in licensing fees.
In the year 2018-19, the government increased license fees for offshore casinos to Rs 25 crore from Rs 10 crore in 2017-18, for those with a passenger capacity of upto 200 people.
For casinos with a passenger capacity of above 200 but upto 400 people, the fee was increased from Rs 11 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 30 crore in 2018-19. For casinos with passenger capacity above 400, the fee was hiked from Rs 12 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 40 crore in 2018-19.
Sawant's reply also stated that the government has extended the time limit for relocating the offshore casinos from River Mandovi upto 30 September 2019 or till an alternate site is finalized by the government, whichever is earlier.
