As you disembark from an aircraft at Goa’s Dabolim airport and reach the aerobridge’s end, you are greeted by a massive poster of a casino ad that is hard to ignore. It’s dripping with glamour and gloss – a picture of an evening of good time with fun, laughter and gambling.
This is your first dose of subliminal message of altering image of the once-a-land-of-sun-sand-and-surf. Then, as your cab speeds through the State highway, you whizz past hoardings after hoardings of casino ads – all luring you to succumb to temptations of wealth and power; surrender to that innate desire to challenge your lady luck. ‘Gaming reaches its peak here’, ‘high stake poker’ and other such slogans hammer your head.
On reaching Panjim, you notice Goa’s high street -- the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg -- overlooking the Mandovi River has been entirely taken over by casinos, its local vibe completely erased. What we see are glitzy casino dens smirking at the common Goans passing through the street after a hard day’s work.
It’s amazing to see how the gambling world is indifferent to the world outside it and vice versa. It's a strange or rather bizarre co-existence -- both worlds have resigned themselves to the existence of the other. As your taxi snakes through the dense traffic, you know this Panjim street now belongs to the casinos.
It’s amazing to see how the gambling world is indifferent to the world outside it and vice versa. It's a strange or rather bizarre co-existence -- both worlds have resigned themselves to the existence of the other.
By the time you reach your destination, it hits you hard how the transformation of Goa as the Las Vegas of India is now complete. The lure of casino tourism was too tough for the coastal State to resist. However much anybody may want to do away with Goa’s casinos, it would be difficult for them to tear it from the State’s economic fabric.
The State’s metamorphosis into gambling capital of India began several years back, and today casino tourism runs through its veins, pumping blood into its economy. The off-shore and on-shore casinos have, reportedly, contributed around Rs 1227-crore revenue to the State’s coffers over the last nine years.
In the wake of revenue loss from the mining industry – which had hit upon hard times due to closure of mines after a Supreme Court order – the State government was compelled to look for an alternative source of income. And, the casino industry easily filled this revenue gap. What started as a compulsion has today become a necessity. Casino tourism is one of the major revenue sources for the Goa government.
The casino tourist traffic is driving a lot of other economic activities in the State. Such is the dependence of the State government on this sector that it forced Goa’s Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte to confess: “Casinos are not needed for tourism in the state, but unfortunately tourism is currently dependent on casinos”.
What started as a compulsion has today become a necessity. Casino tourism is one of the major revenue sources for the Goa government.
Essentially, casino tourism encompasses all the travel and tourism activities tied to casino tourists pouring into the destination. The revenue generated from it goes beyond stays at casino resorts, gambling, gaming, entertainment, food and beverages and other such casino-related activities, and spills over to several non-casino activities around the place.
Since 1999, when the first casino came up in Goa, the inflow of casino tourists has only gone up. Weekend flights from Delhi are packed with travellers eager to try their luck at gaming and gambling slots in Goa. The activity has generated employment and boosted local businesses.
Initially, there was a fierce resistance to it by locals but it gradually dissipated. There was an uproar when it caused financial ruins to Goans, who got addicted to gambling. The storm settled only after the State government decided to come out with a law to prevent locals from gambling at these casinos.
Today, casino tourism has become an integral part of Goa’s tourism, lending the State a schizophrenic identity of being Bahamas and Las Vegas of India at once. When tourists come to Goa and see the casinos, they see a mix of two worlds; and Goa and Goans are gradually learning to navigate this dual identity.
