Goa’s floating casinos no place for a street fighting man (or woman)

A floating casino in the Indian state of Goa is disrupting life for many local residents who say the berthed vessel is threatening their safety.

For the last two months, Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd has been operating Goa’s newest floating casino, the Big Daddy (Maharaja) Casino, which plies its trade on the Mandovi river but collects and deposits customers from a jetty in Goa’s capital Panaji.

This weekend, the Herald Goa reported that local residents were losing it over the fact that casino customers who queue up nightly waiting to board the casino are blocking a local footpath, forcing local residents to walk on the adjacent road during rush hour, leading to traffic jams and a few incidents in which cars have struck pedestrians.

The boat’s captain told the Herald that it wasn’t just gamblers blocking the path but passengers trying to board other cruise ships. The captain claimed the problem will persist until the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) “completes the construction of terminal building.”