Goa begins banning locals from casinos

The home department had recalled the file from the law department and redrafted the rules for casinos based on the casino rules in Macau. Later, the file was moved for chief minister's approval. The government had defined the many terms in the Goa Public Gambling (Amendment) Act 1976, including area, casino, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, offshore casino, onshore casino, passenger capacity etc.

Then chief minister, Laxmikanth Parsekar, sought legal opinion from former advocate general (AG) Saresh Lotlikar on the draft gaming commission rules. The rules include a provision to ban entry of Goans into casinos except for employment. "We will send the gaming commission file to chief minister Manohar Parrikar for approval," a senior officer told TOI.

The department has not changed anything in the draft rules prepared in 2015.

In June 2015, the home department had first drafted the rules, in which there was a provision to arrest any person under age 21 and any Goan, irrespective of age, found gambling in a casino in the state. Goans working in casinos were not to be affected. But since then, the file had not crossed the bureaucratic hurdle.

Under the draft rules, the home department had given power to the state government to appoint a gaming commissioner, who could be a private person or a government officer. The department said that if a private person is appointed then s/he should be provided infrastructure including staff, or the collector, excise commissioner or commercial tax commissioner could be appointed as gaming commissioner.

It was in June 2012 that the state government passed the amendment to the Goa Public Gaming Act, 1976 by introducing the Goa Public Gaming (Amendment) Bill, 2012.

The home department had recalled the file from the law department and redrafted the rules for casinos based on the casino rules in Macau. Later, the file was moved for chief minister's approval.