India’s state home department has withdrawn a draft file on gaming rules and revised it based upon Macau’s legal framework, with the redrafted proposal to be sent to the state government for approval next week, according to The Times of India.
The rules have been redrafted to mirror Macau practices, including the ways of recording visitation to casinos, higher standards of CCTV camera recording, and the length of storage of CCTV footage, commented a senior home department officer cited by the same publication.
The lack of a clear definition for various terms in the Goa Public Gambling (Amendment) Act – first approved in 1976 as the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, with the latest amendment issued in 2012 – prompted the home department to recall the file from the law department.
Amongst the terms singled out as requiring further definition in the gaming rules are the area, casino, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, offshore casino, onshore casino and capacity terms.
Casino jurisdictions
Chapter 1 of the latest Macau Gambling Law (Law no. 16/2001) specifics the definition of games, interactive games, and areas where gambling can be performed – namely, Articles II, III, IV, and V.
Currently, only two states in India have casino gambling operations, Goa and Sikkim, with the majority of the exiting casinos located in Goa – fifteen onshore and cruise-ship casinos – and only two land-based casinos in Sikkim.
The Union Territory of Daman and Diu also allow casino gaming but its first casino is awaiting the approval of its gaming licence.
Untapped market
A report from Global Market Advisors, a gaming, tourism and hospitality consultant, terms India an untapped market, with the potential to generate US$10 billion (MOP80 billion) in annual revenues.
With a US$2.2 trillion (MOP17.6 trillion) GDP in 2015, India is the world’s seventh largest economy. Although its GDP per capita income performs poorly – at just US$1.578 (MOP12.614) some 50 times lower than Macau SAR’s GDP per capita at US$78.585 (MOP628.242), according to World Bank data – India’s billion-plus population and rapidly expanding middle class represent a promising gaming market, Forbes reported.
Receipts from Macau’s gaming market reached US$30 billion (MOP239.95 million) in 2015, according to the local Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
In the Asia Pacific region, Japan – the latest jurisdiction to legalise casino gambling with a bill passed in the Diet’s Upper House on 14 December 2016 – has a potential estimated gaming market of US$40 billion (MOP320 million), according to experts.
