PANAJI: Gaming rules for casinos in Goa are unlikely to see the light of the day anytime soon as the state home department has recalled the draft gaming rules file and redrafted the rules based on the Macau casino rules.
An officer in the home department said that redrafted rules will be sent to the state government for approval next week.
The home department has recalled the file from the law department as a number of terms in Goa Public Gambling (Amendment) Act, 1976, were not defined. Terms like area, casino, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, offshore casino, onshore casino and passenger capacity were also not defined in the rules.
The state cabinet on Friday approved defining the terms to give a clear meaning of the terms for the purpose of the Act. Goa has five offshore casinos and over a dozen onshore casinos.
A senior home department officer said that they have redrafted the new rules on the lines of Macau casino rules to monitor onshore and offshore casino operations in the state. “We will send the file of redrafted rules to the government next week for approval,” the officer told STOI.
As per the redrafted rules, the home department has given power to the state government to appoint a gaming commissioner, who could a private person or a government officer. The home department said that if a private person is appointed, then he should be provided infrastructure, including staff or the government can appoint collector, excise commissioner and commercial tax commissioner as gaming commissioner.
“We have redrafted rules based on Macau casino rules to specify how to maintain the record of customers visiting the casinos, what should be the quality of CCTV cameras, how may days CCTV footage should be stored, among other things,” the officer said.The officer also said that they have not changed any rules which were there in the draft rules prepared in 2015.
In June 2015, the home department first drafted the rules, which allow arrest of any person, under the age of 21 years, and any Goan, irrespective of age, found gambling in a casino in the state. Goans working in casinos will not be affected. But the file could not cross bureaucratic procedures.
In June 2012, the state government passed the amendment to the Goa Public Gaming Act, 1976, by introducing the Goa Public Gaming (Amendment) Bill, 2012.
