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Casino operators in Goa said a 40% Goods and Services Tax (GST) levy on casinos would significantly hamper the industry, leading to a decline in footfall at casinos, impediments to fresh investment and a potential threat to “thousands of jobs”.
The GST Council in its meeting on Wednesday cleared the next-generation reforms to the GST regime, including a broad two-slab structure of 5% and 18%, with a 40% slab for super luxury, “sin” and demerit goods. Casinos earlier came under the 28% GST slab on the full face value of bets.
“Casinos have been vital to Goa’s economy for over 20 years, turning it into a major tourist hotspot benefiting airlines, hotels, taxis, restaurants and more. A proposed 40% GST would cripple the sector, threatening thousands of jobs, killing tourism, slashing revenue and wasting huge past investments,” said Jaydev Mody, chairman of Delta Corp Limited, a leading casino operator.
Goa has six offshore casinos on the Mandovi river in Panaji and over a dozen others that run inside five-star hotels. Over the years, the casinos have become an integral part of the state’s tourism industry and an important revenue generator for the state, drawing both domestic and international tourists.
Delta Corp Limited operates three offshore casinos in Goa. Mody said the company has put on hold its integrated resort-cum-township project at Dhargal in Pernem due to the tax. “Currently, neither state (Goa and Sikkim, the only two states that allow casinos) seems viable for investment due to retrospective GST demands and looming 40% hikes. Delta’s Rs 2,000-2,500 crore integrated resort project, poised to employ 10,000, is now on hold pending GST clarity,” he said.
“I really don’t understand why the government labels this industry as ‘sin goods’, especially since casinos operate only in Goa and Sikkim — both thriving tourism hubs. The casino industry, though limited geographically, significantly boosts these states’ development through direct and indirect revenue. We sincerely hope the central government considers these facts and eases the tax burden on this industry,” said Mody, in an email response to The Indian Express.
Casino operators said the knock-on effects will be felt across the tourism sector in the state, too.
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Amit Garg, a representative of Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd, which operates an offshore casino called ‘Big Daddy’, said, “It would be very difficult to survive with the 40% levy. Coupled with all the other expenditures — licensing fee, other taxes… — we will not be able to cover expenses.”
In 2023, stakeholders of the casino industry in Goa had criticised the GST Council’s decision to levy a uniform 28% tax on “full face value” for online gaming, casinos and horse-racing. The casino operators had instead sought that 28% tax be levied on “gross gaming revenue”, not full face value of bets or full value of consideration paid.
