Goa redrafting casino rules along Macau lines

Sunday 18th of December 2016

The home department has reportedly redrafted some of Goa's casino laws similar to those in Macau, local media reports.

The state home department has recalled the draft gaming rules file, and the redrafted rules will be sent to the state government for approval next week.

The home department recalled the file after it found a number of terms in Goa Public Gambling (Amendment) Act, 1976, were not defined.

Terms such as area, casino, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, offshore casino, onshore casino and passenger capacity were also not defined in the rules.

On Friday, the state cabinet approved defining the terms to give a clear meaning of the terms for the purpose of the Act.

A senior home department officer said they redrafted the new rules along the lines of Macau casino rules to monitor onshore and offshore casino operations in the state. "We will send the file of redrafted rules to the government next week for approval," the officer told The Times of India.

The redrafted rules also state that the home department will give power to the state government to appoint a gaming commissioner, who could a private person or a government officer.

"We have redrafted rules based on Macau casino rules to specify how to maintain the record of customers visiting the casinos, what should be the quality of CCTV cameras, how many days CCTV footage should be stored, among other things," the officer said.

The officer also added that they have not changed any rules which were there in the draft rules prepared in 2015.

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