Goa CM leaves decision to renew casino license to new gov’t

Laxmikant Parsekar has had enough of casinos.

The Goa chief minister said that he is leaving the decision to renew the license of the sixth floating casino in Indian state to the new government.

Golden Globe Hotels Private Ltd. (GGHPL) has been after the state government of Goa to renew the license of its casino vessel, M/S Hotel Leela Ventures. Goa initially issued a license to M/S Hotel Leela Ventures to operate on the Mandovi river in 2006. Hotel Leela’s operations were later transferred to GGHPL on the condition that GGHPL will pay for the renewal of the casino license from the year 2011 to 2016.

But in January, the company filed a petition before the Bombay high court claiming that the government of Goa failed to decide on whether to renew its license even though the company had been paying its annual recurring fees of $6.5 million for the past five years.