Goa Floating Casinos to be Moved Onshore in Three Years

The floating casinos of Goa, India, are to be moved onshore in three year’s time while locals will be forbidden to step inside the vessels. Namely, India’s Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar informed Goa’s legislative assembly at the beginning of the week that the five casinos which currently offer gambling on the Mandovi River will be moved onshore to a new entertainment zone within the following three years as part of a new gambling of casino policy.

The new policy will also introduce a number of other important changes for the floating casinos. To begin with, any language that refers to real money casino “vessels” will be taken out, therefore ensuring that floating casinos “will cease to exist”. The number of casino ships will also be limited to five only, until all are moved to a new location the government is yet to identify. Furthermore, Parrikar confirmed the ban he mentioned in April by announcing that the Prevention of Gambling Act will likewise be amended to include a prohibition on locals entering the casinos in the new entertainment zone.

The newly imposed cap will likely see the MV Lucky 7, a sixth floating real money casino that got stuck on a sandbar last week while being towed to its mooring point in the Mandovi, left outside of the picture, as Parrikar reportedly said it will “never enter the Mandovi”. Instead, he suggested that the ship “can go somewhere else” and that it will be allowed to operate only if there is no opposition from locals in the area it relocates to. The ship, which is operated by Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd, ran aground only a week after receiving permission from Bombay’s High Court to operate on the river.