Even many years after Goa permitted to operate offshore and onshore casino, the state is yet to finalise the rules to regulate them under the Goa Public Gambling Act. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that the proposed Goa Public Gambling Rules are still awaiting to be vetted by the law department and were still in their last stages of scrutiny.
In response to a query posed by MLA Aleixo Lourenco at a winter session, Sawant stated that the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes has been appointed the Gaming Commissioner in January 2020 to supervise the gambling issues on Goa Public Gambling Act. Nevertheless, without the rules to the contrary, the activities of casinos in the state are still subject to the provisions of the parent Act of 1976 and its further amendments.
The Chief Minister has clarified that, until the new provisions become effective, the activities related to the casinos are being handled according to the legal provisions which are present in the government and the terms and conditions of a government notification on the same which was issued in November 1995 and was periodically amended. He further mentioned that the position, powers and responsibilities of the Gaming Commissioner including monitoring of casino operations are now defined under the Act and these notifications.
In response to questions associated with regulatory protection, Sawant opined that such measures as checking the visitors of casinos, examination of their sources of income, tracking of the visitor expenditures, issuing of entry vouchers and keeping of visitation lists would be controlled by an elaborate statutory regime after the regulations have received formal notification.
He also said that the Gaming Commissioner has been empowered to have control on gambling activities in specified areas as required by the law. The regulatory system will be operating under the previous system until the new rules are put into practice.
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