Tourists could bring in 8 million
A study from Global Market Advisors LLC published in April contends that Maharashtra, India, which contains the upscale city of Mumbai, could support a gaming market worth nearly US$1.09 billion per year by the year 2021. Nationwide, GMA’s report states, a growing middle class of Indian nationals could generate nearly US$10.2 billion annually by the year 2025.
Maharashtra, which created legislation for casino gaming in 1976 but never enacted it, is “currently contemplating the legalization of casino gaming and is expected to make a decision on the matter by the end of the year,” said the report, cited in GGRAsia.
GMA’s optimistic projections for the market are based on an estimated percentage of gamblers among the state’s 112 million population, who collectively could be worth nearly US$875 million in annual gaming revenue in the next five years. Domestic and foreign tourists could add another US$218 million.
In 2011, the report said, approximately 45.2 percent of Maharashtra’s total population was urban, and 18.4 million people lived in metropolitan Mumbai, making it “the largest urban agglomeration in India in that year.” According to the population breakdown, city dwellers could contribute nearly US$798 million in annual gaming revenue by 2021, and rural residents could kick in an additional US$77 million during that time frame.
“GMA estimated that 18 percent of adult, urban residents would gamble approximately 12 times a year with an average gaming spend of US$70; and 9 percent of adult, rural residents would gamble approximately six times a year with an average gaming spend of US$80,” stated the report, adding that residents of Maharashtra “demonstrate a larger per capita income than the national average,” the research indicates.
“With large levels of local market and tourism market demand, GMA expects that the greater Mumbai gaming market could generate a total of US$1.1 billion in gaming revenue in 2021, with a large majority of gaming revenue stemming from the local market. If the state of Maharashtra were to employ a 25 percent gaming tax rate, the state could expect to receive approximately US$273.2 million in gaming revenue in the subject year,” noted the report.
The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corp. has come out in favor of land-based casinos in the Indian state. Currently, Goa, Daman and Sikkim are the only states that allow casinos in India. But in 2015, Indian law student Jay Satya discovered that legislation had passed in Maharashtra 40 years ago but was never ratified. Satya pushed for a formal decision, and the Mumbai High Court directed the state “to decide on the issue of implementation of the act.” The final decision must be made by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
