Goa CM intends to ‘take action’ against online gambling apps
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The Goa government might take punitive action against online gambling apps after the Opposition claimed these apps including 'Rummy Circle' were addictive to the youth, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced on Friday.
“I will take action on it,” Sawant said, while responding to a question during Zero Hour in the ongoing monsoon session of the state assembly.
Sawant was responding to a question by Congress MLA Sankalp Amonkar, who had claimed that online gambling was “dangerous” for youth. The MLA had said during the Zero Hour discussion, “Many governments have banned it and hence, the Goa government should also ban online Rummy Circle gaming.”
“Rummy, three cards, pokers, etc are dangerous. These are easily accessible to youth. They are addicted to these games. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Orissa, Nagaland have banned online gambling,” the Congress legislator had told the assembly.
Amonkar also said that the most worrisome element about these online betting games was that it had students putting up large volumes of money to participate in them.
“One can start playing these games at Rs 5 to range of Rs 10,000. Even one can extend the limit above Rs 40,000. It is a complete scam. The government is not monitoring it and as a result students are falling prey,” Amonkar said.
Interestingly, Goa is home to the largest legal casino operations in the country. The coastal state has around six offshore casinos, functioning from Mandovi river, off Panaji, and nine onshore casinos which operate from the five-star resorts which dot the state’s coastline.
The casino industry’s proliferation has also quadrupled the state’s tourist traffic. Nearly eight million tourists visited Goa in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the travel and tourism industry in the state.
