15 Caught Red-Handed inside Illegal Gambling House in Varca
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Casinos in Goa finally get the long-awaited green light to reopen. In the background, 15 people are facing the new penalties for illegal gambling, while players in the state get more cyber oriented.
The Bust Comes 2 Days before Goa Casino Operation Relaxations
Chips of different colors worth ₹ 6.9 lakhs were found among 15 people allegedly playing cards in a Varca hotel on a police raid on Saturday, September 18, 2021. The law enforcement operation in the illegal casino was conducted jointly by Colva and Margao city police detachments. A judicial case was instigated against the 15 Goa and Gujarat residents arrested during the police raid and they were accused of being involved in gambling activities.
After more than 4 months of staying closed, and just 2 days after the police raid in the Varca resort, the officially licensed casinos in Goa were granted the green light to resume operations at 50 per cent of their capacity and strictly adhering to all Covid-19 safety guidelines.
The land-based electronic casinos in five-star hotels and the live-dealer casinos on cruise ships in the state of Goa were ordered to close on May 9. At that time, CM Pramod Sawant’s cabinet restricted a great number of businesses and services amidst the high of the second wave of new coronavirus infections.
Relaxations to the lockdown measures concerning different businesses and events in the social, political or cultural sphere started to be implemented on a step-by-step basis from July, when the strength of the wave was already subdued. Nevertheless, the government found it necessary to keep casinos, spas and massage parlours closed until September 20.
Goa Casinos Resume Operations Just in Time for the Tourist Season
High tourist season in Goa is between the months of October and March, and the government’s relaxation order comes just in time for the industry to make the most of it. Reportedly, tourism accounts for approximately 30 per cent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product, and most of the tourism in Goa is gambling-related, despite the presence of splendid sand beaches and the well developed all-night entertainment facilities.
Delta Corp, a major casino and hotel operator, enjoyed a 13 per cent jump in its market value on the BSE intraday trade immediately following the announcement of the relaxations. The stock of the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala backed gaming and hospitality operator reached a 52-week high surging to ₹ 258 per share on September 20.
The lockdowns of the first and the second coronavirus waves had brought negative financial results for Delta Corp Ltd. The company completed the first quarter of the Financial Year of 2021 with a consolidated net loss ₹ 28.93 crore (loss of ₹ 35.43 crore before taxes), with the promulgation of the quarterly corporate report resulting in a 1.06 per cent drop in stock value to ₹ 186.30 then.
Similarly, the operation restrictions of the first Covid-19 wave lockdown brought Delta Corp a net loss of ₹ 28.24 crore for Q1 of FY 2020, and the pre-tax loss was reported at ₹ 34.78 crore.
Delta Corp is famous for its electronic and live-dealer casinos in Goa, Sikkim, and recently Kathmandu, Nepal, but in 2016 the publicly listed company entered the online casinos industry with the acquisition of Gauss Network Private Ltd, owner of poker site Adda52, in a deal combining cash and equity. The rummy site Adda52rummy was later added to the group’s portfolio.
At points during the last year and a half, it was only Delta’s online skill-gaming division that was operational and generating revenues for the company. However, a recently published analysis by SevenJackpots reveals that Delta’s Adda52, Pure Win and other online gambling sites and apps are receiving double traffic from Goa considering the size of the small coastal state’s population of just 1.5 million people.
New Penalty Sections Await the 15 Accused
The 15 alleged gamblers from the recent police raid in Varca will be up against the freshly amended penalties of the Goa Public Gaming Act from August. Among some other things, the Goa Public Gambling (Amendment) Bill (Bill No. 42 of 2021) updated the texts of Section 3 relating to keeping or organizing a common gambling house and of Section 4 relating to being found in such a place, increasing the financial penalties stipulated there.
The new wordings of the sections also introduced the possibility offenders to be punished by imprisonment or by monetary sanction, or by both. Before the adoption of the 2021 Amendment, the Gambling Law required both a custodial sentence and a financial penalty to be imposed on persons found guilty of these violations.
