It is my belief that foreign multi national Gaming company execs, many of whom have already made fact finding trips to India, are closely watching the developments in Daman before committing further.
ORISSA
with the operations, particularly their quality of management, their staff and services, and the enormous potential that these operations have - Casino Royale
www.casinoroyale.com is a prime example of how operations should, and can be, run in India.
With Goa and Sikkim being the smallest two Indian States one can imagine the latent potential for gaming in India, a country rapidly becoming a major world economic power with close to 1.3 billion inhabitants and a rapidly growing middle class.
Looking at the mainly Indian tourists that the Goan Casinos attract, the vast majority come from outside Goa, preferring to stay in 5 star hotels. Tourism authorities from all around India are eagerly eying the major impact this in-bound tourism has on the Goan and regional State economies.
SIKKIM
Sikkim was the second Indian State to legalise casino gambling and on 1 March, 2009. The Casino Sikkim, located in the regional capital Gangtok, at the Royal Plaza hotel - the casino was opened by state tourism minister RB Subba, who at the time said that seven further casino applications were being considered by the state. Casino Sikkin was the first ever land based casino to offer live casino gaming and today is the only non 5 star hotel with casino gambling. To date only one more casino has opened in Sikkim, the Mahjong Casino in the Mayfair Gangtok Hotel - India’s first 5 star hotel to have a full casino with live table games. Mahjong Casino opened June 2011 and already has expansion plans prompted by excellent levels of business.What was a very small casino in the Royal Plaza hotel, will be greatly increased in size and move next door to it’s own purpose-built building very soon.
DAMAN
Delta Corp, (the largest gaming company in India ), has recently acquired a 51 percent stake in the Daman Hospitality Private limited (DHPL) which owns the resort casino property in Daman under management by Thunderbird Resorts. Delta also owns an in-principle license to set up an additional Casino in Daman.
In July of 2011 it was announced that the eastern state of Orissa had declared it will form a cabinet- level sub-committee to shape its tourism policy. This initiative is a bid to attract Indian and foreign tourists to explore and visit interesting places in Orissa and make exploration of the state attractive. A report in the Indian Economic Times suggests that the sub-committee would consider granting permits to allow casinos in select hotels.
INDIAN CASINO CRUISES
Recently it has become possible for Indian nationals to take cruises, offering full casino facilities, without the need for passport control, as the cruisedestinations are other Indian locations, or “cruises to nowhere”. Billed as India’s first cruise line, Blue Ocean Cruises commenced the trend in November 2010. However, after a very short time the vessel was sent back to the ship yard in Greece following mechanical problems It is now due to return to India in the next 3 months. In recent months another Indian company Amet Cruises has started cruising from Chennai with a casino, and already Amet are planning a second cruise ship.
What are the current gaming regulations? The following are the current, applicable, Indian laws (re: casino gambling, online casinos and poker only) :
The Public Gambling Act, 1867: This Central legislation provides for the punishment of public gambling and was the first Gambling Act in India. It may be noted that the Public Gambling Act of 1867, a central legislation which prohibits public gambling, applies to all states other than the ones mentioned below.
The Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976 - an amendment created to the Act allows casinos to be set up only at five star hotels or offshore vessels with the prior permission of the government. While offshore casinos can offer all types of regular casino games and slots the onshore or land based casinos can only offer electronic gaming. Two major amendments were made to this Act in 1996 and 2003 and gambling has expanded rapidly since then.
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