India-listed gaming operator Delta Corp. is interested in developing an integrated resort in Goa, but only if the government moves the state’s offshore casinos from the Mandovi River to land-based locations.
Delta Chairman Jaydev Mody told the Economic Times the IR plan—which includes a water park, retail space and a convention center—hinges on the policy change, which likely would relocate the floating casinos to an entertainment hub near the airport.
“It is a win-win for everybody, for the government, for the people and for the industry. It makes a lot of sense,” he told the newspaper.
Delta owns three floating casinos in Goa in the northern state of Sikkim and also will soon be licensed for a casino in a five-star resort in Daman. The company is expanding into Nepal and owns the online gaming brand Adda52. Mody told the Times that Delta has posted 20 percent to 25 percent compound average growth over the past 10 years.
“I do not see any reason why we cannot keep growing at that pace in the future,” he said. “The business is there and we will keep growing. We just have to keep innovating and keeping our product and quality of service right up there.” But he criticized the high taxes levied on gaming companies, saying operators are “crazily taxed.”
“If the government realizes that there is a multibillion-dollar business out there in gaming but it is all grey market or below the radar and they tax it appropriately, it would all come into the organized sector and then the business can grow. It already exists. The market is there.”
