India’s Delta Corp. has purchased 100 acres of land in northern Goa to develop a new, “one-of-a-kind” integrated resort.
According to India.com, the local government welcomed the development plan as a way to recoup financial losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Goa Investment Promotion Board discussed the proposal in October and approved the project in December.
Under Chairman Jaydev Mody, Delta Corp. has become one of the most successful enterprises in India. It ranked No. 374 on the India Fortune 500 list last May. Delta owns three of Goa’s six floating casinos and its sole land-based casino at the Deltin Suites Hotel. The floating casinos are expected to move to the airport complex when it’s complete by 2024-25.
In related news, the state government of Goa, on India’s southwestern coast, has granted another six-month extension to the offshore casinos operating on the Mandovi River.
The latest extension will run from March 31 to September 30, says Chief Minister Pramod Sawant; one plan is to move the casinos ashore, and according to Inside Asian Gaming, including to the parcel of land earmarked by Delta in North Goa.
The casino boats were closed for much of 2020, during the initial Covid-19 outbreak; they ceased operations on March 14 and reopened November 1 with new health and safety protocols.
The local government has been promising for years to move the casinos, either ashore or to another water-based location. Lawmakers have never followed through on the pledge, and have continued to issue six-month extensions. The Hindustan Times reported that the government now is hesitant to shut the casinos because of the taxes they generate. Sawant recently revealed that Goa’s offshore casinos had generated Rs 7.86 billion (US$108 million) in state revenue over the past nine years.
