Nepal: Tourism ministry asks casinos to renew their license

Though the renewal process was put on hold for almost a year, a cabinet meeting held few months ago had decided to renew operating license of the casinos. According to officials, casino operators must renew their license by the end of the current fiscal year if they are to run the company.

Mohan Krishna Sapkota, joint secretary at MoCTCA, said the ministry was shortly issuing a notice asking the casinos to renew their operating license. “If the casinos fail to comply, they may lose their operating license,” added Sapkota.

According to Inland Revenue Department, none of the casinos has cleared the outstanding dues. It is a must for the operators to clear all the dues to get their license renewed.

Earlier this month, the ministry had issued a notice instructing all the casinos to provide information about their operational and ownership status. However, none of the casinos provided necessary complete information to the ministry. Sapkota said they have received only partial information from the casinos. “Casino Fulbari didn´t even feel it necessary to respond to our call,” he added.

Although the government has already scrapped license of Nepal Recreation Center (NRC), which was running four casinos, all the casinos are still in operation, which the ministry says is illegal. As the ministry itself is unaware about the operational status of casinos, it has decided to issue a ´white paper´ about the status of the casinos.

A senior official at the ministry said they were at the final stage of drafting the white paper.  “We can initiate legal action against the casinos only after we know their actual status,” the official added.