The Casino Goa is India's only live casino located offshore in Panaji in Goa. September 2008 saw two new live offshore casinos open; the Kings Casino and Leelas Rio. Both offer live gambling experience, and easy entrance ticketing policies, obviously to compete with its more well entrenched neighbour, the Caravela. October should see two new and impressively large offshore casinos open in Goa, the luxurious and large Casino Royale and the Pride of Goa, both stationed alongside the other three floating casinos. It should be a good choice for punters who thus far had to make do with the take it or leave us attitude of the Caravela who seem to have let their 'only live casino in India' status go to their heads and particularly to the head of their Australian casino manager .The casino is located on a yacht, the M.V. Caravela, anchored in the River Mandovi. The casino vessel worth is 110 million Rupees (or 11 crore ₨) and is owned by the Advani Pleasure Cruise Co Ltd as a joint venture between the company and Casinos Austria. It has around eleven tables of American Roulette, Blackjack and Paplu (Rummy) besides a few electronic slot machines. The company has to pay a licence fee of Rs. 500,000 (or Rs. 5 lakh ) annually. Entrance fees are high at Rs. 1,600 for the morning sightseeing cruise (10.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.), Rs. 3,000 for the sunset cruise (5.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.), and Rs. 4,000 for the dinner cruise (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.). Its high fees are meant to deter casual punters and target the foreign tourists. Players are dealt to by dealers specially trained to conduct sessions with accepted international standards. The government hopes to lure Indian citizens who travel to neighbouring Nepal to gamble.
The setup of the casino was controversial as live gambling is outlawed in India (many states actively promote and sponsor lotteries . This was partially circumvented by hosting it off the mainland. The government in Goa is promoting Offshore casinos in Goa by granting new licences to more companies in an attempt to generate more tourist related revenue. Goa state is the only one in India that permits both electronic on land casinos as well as live off shore ones.
Future growth
In 2007, State of Goa officials finally decided to expand the number of licenses for off-shore boating casinos tenfold in Goa to attract foreign tourists from the Arabian peninsula, and attempt to recreate some of the success of Macau, another former Portuguese colony. The state also has an eye on the large number of Indian gamblers flocking to neighboring Nepal, where gambling is legal. Visitors are expected to climb 20% this year, approaching 3 million. [1]
References
- Casinos in Goa, Information about Casino Resorts, Offshore Casinos in Goa, 13 October 2008
- Live casino comes to Goa, GoaNews, Sandesh Prabhudesai, 28 December 2000
- Politicians jumble facts on casino gamble, GoaNews, Sandesh Prabhudesai, 8 January 2001
- No more casinos in Goa, Goa News, Rupesh Samant, 29 December 2004
- The Caravela
- Punters Ahoy, The Hindu, Hugh and Colleen Gantzer, Sunday, Dec 07, 2003
Links
- Ramada Caravela Beach Resort, the hotel of the Advani Hotels & Resorts (India) Limited
This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
Video: Goa Casino boats
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