Goa has officially approved the Goa Public Gambling Rules under which a gaming commissioner will be granted extensive powers to oversee the Indian state’s onshore and offshore casinos.
According to a report by The Times of India, the Goa Public Gambling Rules were approved by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant after being vetted by the law department. The gaming commissioner will be fully functional once the rules are notified, expected to take place later this month.
Sawant said there is currently no mechanism in place to check the profile of casino clients, their source of funds or how much they spend in Goa’s casinos.
Under the Goa Public Gambling Rules, the gaming commissioner will have the power to issue entry tickets to casinos and maintain a record of how many people visited. The commissioner will also have the power to order the closure of land-based casinos within 5-star hotels that are found to have breached casino laws or to seize any offshore casino vessels that do the same.
The new rules are being introduced in an attempt to modernize and tighten the regulation of Goa’s casinos in response to regulatory gaps, enforcement challenges and concerns over transparency within the sector.
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