Goa India – India’s Offshore Casinos
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Casino Goa, located in Panaji Goa, was India’s only live offshore casino.
In September 2008 two new live offshore casinos opened. The Kings Casino and Leelas Rio. Both casinos offer an enhanced gaming experience, superior service and easy entrance ticketing policies.
The new casinos compete with their more well entrenched neighbor, the Caravela.
October should see two new and impressively large offshore casinos open in Goa, the luxurious and large Casino Royale and the Maharaja, both stationed alongside the other three floating casinos.
The casino is located on a yacht, the M.V. Caravela, anchored in the River Mandovi. The casino vessel worth is 110 million Rupees and is owned by the Advani Pleasure Cruise Co Ltd as a joint venture between the company and Casinos Austria. It has around eleven tables of American Roulette, Blackjack and Paplu Rummy besides a few electronic slot machines.
The yacht is 215 feet long and can accommodate 300 people. A boat ferries passengers from the shore to the yacht. Themed restaurants, barbecues atop the deck and a swimming pool are some of the facilities on board. The ship is named after the first Portuguese ship that visited Goa in the 16th century.
The entrance fees are Rs 1,600 for the morning sightseeing cruise from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm. The sunset cruise fee of 3,000 Rs is from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm. There is also a 4,000 Rs dinner cruise from 10 pm to 6 am. These fees are high for the local market which will tend to deter casual gamblers and thus target the foreign tourists.
The dealers are trained to conduct sessions within accepted international standards. The government hopes to lure Indian citizens who travel to neighboring Nepal to gamble.
Since gambling is outlawed in India the offshore setup of the casino was controversial. The prohibition against gambling was circumvented by hosting it off the mainland. In addition, the Congress government in Goa is promoting offshore casinos in Goa by granting new licenses to more companies.
