Casinos in Nepal are starting to shut down in response to new moves by the government to regulate them and increase their taxes and fees.
Casino Pokhara Grande located in the Pokhara Grande Hotel in Pokhara closed last week, citing the doubling of the entry fee designed to discourage Nepalis from gambling. The casino had been in operation five years. More casinos are expected to follow, and tourism officials are concerned about the impact.
The casinos say around 70,000 tourists visit the casinos annually. Around 20 percent of them visit Pokhara. Kedar Sharma, president of the Pokhara chapter of the Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents, said the venues are an essential component of foreign visitation. “The government should create an environment for entrepreneurs to do business,” he said.
“Most of the Indian and Chinese tourists, who are in Pokhara, visit casinos,” added Tikaram Sapkota, a member of the Nepal Tourism Board.
The government has given operators four months to comply with new regulations that require them to register for licensing. The new rules also call for closer monitoring of the properties to prevent Nepalis from getting in. Regular audits of machine games also are planned.
“Daily record of people entering the casinos and payout records have been made mandatory. The total number of coins, machines and values of the coins also should be transparent, and the casino-holders are strictly prohibited from providing loans to the gamblers,” said Secretary of Tourism and Aviation Purna Chandra Bhatteri.
New start-up costs have been set at 250 million Nepalese rupees for five-star hotels (US$2.6 million) and NPR150 million for four-star hotels. Operators must pay NPR20 million ($210,000) upon receiving their licenses and another NPR500,000 as a registration fee. There are also annual fees—NPR40 million for five-star hotels ($420,000), NPR30 million for four-star—and casinos must begin investing 2% of their profits in “social development” programs.
