The floating casinos in the Indian state of Goa will have to find a new location to thrive in since their current one is going to become more crowded than it is. Goa’s state government is on the pursuit of a new place for the operators of the five casinos and they have decided to extend their wrap up deadline.
Right now the Mandovi river is the home of five floating casinos and the government is looking to find them a new location to dock. This Tuesday it issued a notice announcing that the deadline for the casino to finish their business in the area has been extended by three months and is now to the 30th of September.
Back in March 2016, the government gave the shipboard casinos a one-year extension to vacate the waterway and they were supposed to move around the 31st of March this year. However, that did not happen, because a new location for five floating casinos is not an easy thing to find, so the operators have been given three additional months to do so. Delta Corp, Goa Coastal Resorts and Recreation, Highstreet Cruises and Entertainment, Golden Peace Infrastructure and Delta Pleasure Cruise Company will have to look for a new permanent home this autumn.
The hunt for a particularly suitable waterway which could host the five casinos has been going on for many years now. The government has been proposing sites at the Chapora, Zuari, and Sal rivers, as well as Auguada Bay, but to no avail. Local residents expressed their opposition to the idea.
Some of them are concerned with the condition of sensitive fishing areas, which are on the way of the floating casinos, others simply refuse to share their proximity with bursting with life casinos. Their decision was unanimous and expressed in front of the government representatives. A wide variety of alternatives to the Mandovi river have been explored so far, among which Chicalim Bay on the Zuari river, which have proven premature and not really thought through.
The casino industry in Goa is a source of constant controversy among the nation. Recently the government was accused of renewing the license of a sixth shipboard casino which is, in fact, non-operative after the court ruled that the government could not delay its decision until the results from the election were made public.
The uncertainty has not stopped the government from raising the annual fees on floating casinos. From now on gaming vessels with a capacity of 200 people will have to pay an annual fee of Rs100 million (US$1.5 million), whereas vessels with capacity up to 400 people will pay Rs110 million.
