India’s largest casino operator Delta Corp has received a license to launch another casino in Goa.
On Tuesday, Delta announced it had been granted a license to operate a casino at its Deltin Suites hotel in Goa. Delta says the five-star, 106-room hotel will offer a variety of casino games, including blackjack, baccarat and roulette.
Delta is the dominant player in the Goa casino market, one of only three Indian states that permits casino gambling. Delta currently operates two floating casinos in Goa, the Deltin Royale and Deltin Jack, offering a combined 2,000 gaming positions. A third floating casino, Deltin Caravela, is currently undergoing renovation.
The new Deltin Suites casino will be the company’s first onshore Goa casino. Investors cheered the news, pushing the company’s stock up 6% on Wednesday. Delta is India’s only publicly traded casino firm.
Goa’s state government recently made local casino operators nervous by suggesting plans were afoot to ban local residents from entering casinos except to work, although companies like Delta are expected to mount a legal challenge if the no-locals proposal is approved.
Delta is currently in the process of installing a new gaming facility at its integrated resort in Daman, one of the other states in which gaming is permitted. Delta launched The Deltin Daman in March 2014 and the company claims to be nearly finished adding the new 60k-square-foot casino, which it promises will contain between 1,000-1,500 gaming positions.
Sikkim is currently the only other Indian state in which gaming is permitted, but Maharashtra – which contains India’s capital and largest city Mumbai – is mulling joining this club. An enterprising law student recently uncovered a 38-year-old statute that authorized casino gambling in the state, although this statute was never ratified. In October, the Bombay High Court gave the Maharashtra state government six months in which to decide how it wants to proceed.
