A casino policy which allows the players to move from the water to land will actually allow the gaming industry to expand multifold, says Delta Corp, which operates casinos in Goa and Sikkim.
"It (casino policy) is a sensitive topic, we understand that. Other policies... yes there is I believe a policy which is going to allow us to move from the river to the land -- with rivers you face a lot of challenges, access being one of it and a whole host of other infrastructure creation around being on water which we need to look into," Delta Corp CEO and President Anil Malani told BTVi in an interview.
"If we move to land, all that will eventually fall, we won't have to deal a lot of that stuff. Right now we are completely strained for capacity. When that happens we could be building may be five times, 10 times next year. So we can actually plan for years to come," he added.
Delta Corp is the only listed company engaged in the casino -- live, electronic and online -- gaming industry in the country, and along with its subsidiaries, currently owns and operates casinos in India, in Goa and Sikkim, offering approximately 1,600 gaming positions. The two states are the only in India to allow casinos.
On expansion plans, Malani said the company has recently signed an MoU with a hotel owner in Kathmandu and it is expected to be operational by the second half of next year.
"We are waiting for our Daman license to come through, that will be a game changer for us. We have also recently opened a casino in Gangtok, Sikkim, we are hoping the business picks up over there because there is a new airport...," said Malani, hopeful of an increased traffic in the state.
"Goa is already growing at the 30-30 per cent," he added.
The company had last year ventured into the online gaming space through the acquisition of Gauss Networks, which operated the online poker site "Adda52.com".
"One of the things that we did last year was that we acquired an established online player called Adda52.com -- the largest skill-based poker online company -- and we do believe that there is good growth over there," Malani added.
--IANS
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