Goa casinos to strike windfall in rupee loss

PANAJI: Can the depreciating rupee hit a jackpot? Sure it can – for the gambling havens of Goa. Casino officials say a rupee freefall means more bang for the buck for dollar-tourists in India but the real big spenders are bulge-bracket desis who now find it cheaper to fly down for a weekend of gambling in Goa rather than hoof it to Macau or Las Vegas.

“Most of our clients are from north India. With the depreciating rupee, travelling abroad is expensive and it’s cheaper to fly to Goa for gambling,” said a casino official , who did not wish to be identified.

Weekends typically see a rush of high-spending tourists from north India and many ‘VIP customers’ often splurge over a crore, taking turns at the roulette and blackjack tables as well as the slot machines. To make things easier for the guests, huge quantities of cash is pre-arranged through agents in Delhi and other places in north India and delivered in Goa.

Steady business

Sources in the industry claim that the three functioning offshore casinos on the River Mandovi – Casino Royale, Casino Carnival and Casino Pride – attract over a thousand footfalls per day, suggesting business is steady. “The serious players who are high spenders never stopped coming,” said a casino official.

Clearly, the slowdown has had little impact on the business of gambling. Apart from the three offshore casinos, there are about 12 onshore casinos in Goa.
According to Shyam Haridas, director, sales and marketing at Casino Carnival – owned by leading local industrialists, the Salgaocars – the vessel gets over 3,500 footfalls per month. While officials are tightlipped about the profits figures , sources say each of the offshore casinos sees an average net profit earnings of Rs 1.75 crore per day, while each of the 10-odd onshore casinos earn Rs 3.75 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per day.

Officially, the casino industry sees a Rs 900-1 ,000 crore turnover per annum. But sources say, actually it is way above that figure. The official figures, placed in the Goa Assembly, put it in perspective. It says casinos — both offshore and onshore — paid the state exchequer Rs 135 crore by way of taxes for the financial year 2012-13.

The government also earned Rs 17.96 crore in the form of entry fee. It earned Rs 32.50 crore as annual licence fees from offshore casinos, and Rs 25 crore as annual licence fees from onshore casinos. The state government collected Rs 53.29 crore as entertainment tax, Rs 2 crore as value-added tax, and Rs 1 crore as liquor licence fee from offshore casinos, while onshore casinos paid Rs 1.2 crore as liquor licence fee.

The challenges

Acombination of factors, including rising fuel costs and multiple entry fees and taxes , have cut into the profit of Goa casinos. “I agree that there has been an increase in the amount we’ve been paying the government by way of annual taxes, but that doesn’t translate as growth,” said Shrinivas Nayak, director, Casino Pride, Goa. “It is a struggle. It is a question of survival,” said Narendra Punj, MD, High Street Cruise and Entertainment, a Delta Corp Limited venture, which operates Casino Royale on the River Mandovi. According to Nayak, the reduction in the number of offshore casinos in Goa is a clear sign that all is not well.

“From six, there are now just three operating on the river ,” he said. Industry sources , however, said that though a couple of offshore casinos ceased functioning over two years ago, they were for other reasons.