Goa’s state government proposed the casinos as India posted a 13 per cent rise in tourist arrivals to 3.91 million in the fiscal year ended March 2006 and the government earned $6bn (£4bn) - the third largest source of foreign exchange.
“That means more quality tourists are coming to our country and we in Goa would like to cash in on this trend,” said Ernest Dias, vice president of Goa’s Travel and Tourism Association.
“These new offshore casinos will bring premium tourists here,” he said, predicting that the former Portuguese colony’s Calangute beachfront would see an explosion in foreign visitors.
“Since the 1960s we have been identified as a drug-and-sex hippie centre, but that’s changing. Tourists from a wider economic band are coming, and these new casinos will help as Goa after 10 pm doesn’t have a nightlife,” he added.
Goa’s solitary privately-run floating casino, Carvella, plies the Mandovi River and is packed after sundown.
The state’s 12 luxury hotels and 200 low-budget rentals often show “no vacancy” signs as 87 per cent of their combined 9,000 rooms brim with holiday-makers, state tourism officials report.
Europeans with deep pockets also occupy rented Portuguese-style stucco bungalows, while budget tourists, mainly from Russia and Israel, trawl for cheap stays in modern apartments touting bed-and-breakfast.
Goa Tourism Development Corp Managing Director Sanjith Rodriques said permits for floating casinos in the former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people, which became part of India in 1961, will be given to the private sector.
“We already have one and we are going to put up 10 more offshore platforms as they are an attraction for visitors who want an evening out to splurge in floating casinos,” said Rodriques.
“Floating casinos will provide more novelty and attraction. Tourism here is growing and such attractions are a must-have,” he said.
Goa received 600 chartered flights from Europe last year and the state tourism chief said 800 were booked to the resort state for the current year.
“Last year, we received 2.4 million tourists of which 300,000 were foreigners and we are expecting a 20-percent jump this financial year,” Dias said in state capital Panaji, 20km from Calangute.
Goa legalised gambling in an effort to replicate the success of another former Portuguese enclave, Macao, and is India’s only state to have done so.
“India has an ancient horse-racing culture and its time we revisit issues of morality involved in gambling,” said Goan tour operator Mario Noronha. “Besides, these casinos will bring in taxes to the government,” added tourism deputy chief Dias.