Three years to move all ships
A grounded Indian casino boat, the MV Lucky 7, must be removed from the waters off Miramar Beach in India or be declared “a nuisance,” say officials in the state of Goa.
Last month, the boat was headed for the River Mandovi to become the state’s sixth floating casino. On the way, it beached on a sandbar and is still stuck there. Casino.org reports that the boat would have operated under the name “Big Daddy Casino.”
India’s District Disaster Management Authority says if the vessel is not moved immediately, it is considering “declaring the vessel a nuisance as its continuous presence at Miramar beach will endanger to wildlife and could cause environmental damage.”
It’s the latest controversy surrounding the fleet of casino boats, which many residents oppose, and which local politicians have repeatedly pledged to relocate or shift to land-based operations.
The recent decision to add to the fleet with a sixth boat was especially unpopular because the Lucky 7 was owned by Golden Globe Hotels, a company controlled by Gopal Kanda, former minister for the state of Haryana. Kanda was arrested in 2012 on charges of sexual exploitation after a flight attendant who worked at his MDLR Airlines committed suicide and implicated him in her note. Charges of aiding and abetting were lodged against Kanda and later dropped.
He has been accused of negligence in trying to rush the 5,000-ton boat to the Mandovi before monsoon season began, when passage would have been impossible. Now the ship may be headed for the scrap heap.
“The vessel in the current circumstances is getting weaker,” a source told the Times of India. “The vessel should have been taken out immediately, but a long delay resulted in a gushing hole at its bottom. The hole has got wider because of which water has entered the engine room and other parts of the ground floor. New cracks are also visible.”
Even if the boat is successfully moved and anchored in the Mandovi, it will only be there temporarily; all casino boats operating off the coast of Goa must move to land within three years, says Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
