All casinos in Nepal will be declared illegal from tonight if they fail to pay their dues to the government.
Nepal's Supreme Court yesterday upheld the Casino Regulations 2013 endorsed by the cabinet last year in a bid to penalise tax defaulting casinos and ban entry of Nepali players into the casinos.
Casino operators had moved the court demanding annulment of the regulations as the government had heavily hiked royalty and other charges on the basis of the regulations.
In response to the petition filed by four casino organisations of Kathmandu and Pokhara, a three-member bench led by Justice Suishila Karki ruled against the plea arguing that the regulations were prepared as per the earlier Supreme Court order.
The apex court's decision has given a blow to the casino operators in the country. As per the new regulations, the casinos operators are required to renew their operating license by the March 21 deadline.
This means all the casinos will become illegal by tonight.
As per the new regulations, the operators must pay Rs 20 million to obtain a casino license while the fee for a mini casino is Rs 10 million.
They are also required to renew the license annually by paying 50 per cent of the operating license fee.
The casino operators must also pay the government annual royalty of Rs 40 million for big gaming houses and Rs 30 million for mini casinos as per the new regulations.
Ten casinos operating from Kathmandu and Pokhara are required to pay more than Rs 1 billion dues to the government as of now.
Some 15,000 people are directly employed by casinos.
