PANAJI: In a major twist of sorts, while the Congress in Goa has been claiming to remove all Casinos in the coastal state if it comes to power in 2027, a Mumbai-based journalist who had interviewed a former Congress CM of Goa, told this website, that the former Congress CM had confided to him that “they got Rs 15 crore to permit Goa’s first Casino boat in the Mandovi river in the year 1999”.
Without naming the ex-CM – as that’s the highlight of the story in the book, he revealed that the Congress leaders – particularly the then Congress CM and the then Home Minister and another South Goa MLA, were beneficiaries of huge amounts of money to facilitate the Casino policy, which permitted live gaming on the Mandovi River.
According to an excerpt from a yet-to-be-published e-book tentatively titled “Casinos & Goa’s Dirty Politics” – which we had limited access to, the then Home Minister got Rs 7 crore out of the Rs 15 crore and the rest was divided among the CM and another leader, mostly from South Goa. The HM got the lion’s share because he had negotiated the deal with the Casino company, the former CM had allegedly claimed to the journalist.
We have not published the names of the Congress CM and the HM who were recipients of the bribes, although it is public knowledge among Goans.
According to a Wikipedia post, under the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976, casinos were allowed to operate within five-star hotels and on offshore vessels, subject to government licensing and regulations. This legal framework enabled the establishment of various casinos, both land-based and floating, primarily along the Mandovi River and in luxury resorts, across North and South Goa.
According to media reports, the first casino in Goa began in 1999 with the Congress government in power and former Congress South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha as the Chief Minister. The offshore vessel M V Caravela received the first government license ever, to operate as a casino on the Mandovi river on 2nd December 1999. According to a social media post, the M V Caravela was then named Casino Goa and run by Advani Pleasure Cruise Company Ltd. It was later taken over by Delta Corp Group and renamed.
Casino Goa, later renamed Casino Caravela was a live casino located offshore in Panaji on a yacht – the M V Caravela, and anchored in the River Mandovi. It was owned by the Advani Pleasure Cruise Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Delta Corp and Casinos Austria. When it opened, it had around eleven tables of American Roulette, Blackjack and Paplu (Rummy) besides a few electronic slot machines and offered different forms of other live entertainment.
Then Opposition leader Manohar Parrikar (as reported by the Times of India) in the year 2009, while addressing a press conference handed out copies of starred legislative assembly question (LAQ) 12B answered on the floor of the House, on February 4, 2009, on the subject of “license for operation of offshore casino”.
He pointed to the answer given by the then Home Minister, stating that the license to the first floating casino Caravela was granted on December 2, 1999. “The casino was given a license in 1999 when Sardinha was the chief minister,” Parrikar had told media persons.
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