With the release of the latest budget, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee have raised questions. In her latest take on the budget, Banerjee said, “Goa has casinos. We cannot allow casinos here because the culture is different here.”

The rapidly growing online gaming industry in India also gained traction from several ministries, which are now taking measures to regulate the industry properly.

Among them are the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which released the draft online gaming rules to regulate online gaming, and the Finance Ministry, which recently released the budget regarding taxation on online gaming.

While Banerjee claims that it is not the state’s culture, Casinos allow increased revenue and help curb the unregulated illegal gambling dens. States like Goa, Daman & Diu have legal casinos, which help in boosting the income from tourists.

Earlier in October 2022, the Joint Action Committee Against Casino (JACAC) put on a series of protest campaigns across Meghalaya, forcing the state government to repeal the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act 2021.

The Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act 2021, which legalized the casinos in the state, was later repealed in November through an ordinance. Currently, only two states have legal casinos, but with a recent shift in the Indian gaming sector, there is a huge possibility of new casinos emerging in different states.

Last year, the general secretary of Maharashtra, Navnirman Sena, Manoj Chavan, requested to set up casinos in Maharashtra.

Chavan said, “People travel from several states like Goa and Sri Lanka for the casinos. The revenue of our state will undoubtedly rise in a positive way if casinos are introduced along the Konkan coast as well as in Goa,” in his argument.