Sikkim To Soon Have Legal Sports Betting Shops

The Sikkim govt has announced a new law that will allow private companies to set up betting services in the state, with a view on higher tourist turnover and tax revenues from the same. According to an article from Telegraph India, the Sikkim Legislative Assembly passed the Sikkim Online Gaming (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 in Aug. If implemented, the state will be the first to have legal betting shops in the country.

The bill is expected to be notified soon and will allow betting on all major sporting events, across the world, from within the state. Currently India only permits lotteries and betting on horse racing along with legal casinos in the states of Goa, Daman & Diu and Sikkim.

With this law, Sikkim is looking at attracting large volumes of tourists and related revenues. After it had begun casinos, the state’s 4 to 5 Lakhs tourist numbers had more than doubled to 12 Lakhs.

Ugen T. Gyatso, Tourism and Civil Aviation minister reported that, “With this new law, we hope to double the numbers, though our aim is to get 50 Lakhs tourists a year. The airport in Sikkim will become operational by 2017, so it isn’t a tough target to achieve.”

The state is counting on raking in huge money from the initiative. K.P. Sharma, Directorate, Sikkim State Lotteries declared that “We are looking at tax revenues of around ₹5 crore per annum from each of the betting shops.”

It has been reported that the state tax department would collect 10% of the net income or ₹5 crores, whichever was higher from the operators setting up the betting shops.

The state has already issued licenses to three companies and Manoj Sethi, Director, Maarm International Pvt. Ltd, one of the aforesaid, stated that, “We will start operating from a 6,600-sqft area once we get all the formalities cleared. Our target is the end of September.”

The company has already begun a marketing blitz across Gangtok, capital of Sikkim and plans to offer games such as poker, baccarat, blackjack and roulette, besides betting.

The market is considered to be a potentially lucrative one and Kapil Khanna, consultant to Future Gaming, one of the other license holders said, “There is huge market potential and the government can earn high tax returns by legalising betting. Sikkim can lead by example.”

Khanna revealed that a number of international players like William Hill, Bet365, Ladbrokes and Betfair were also seeking an entry, by tying up with local operators to bypass the rules that do not allow them direct entry.

Several industry experts have welcomed the news and Jay Sayta of Glaws.in stated that, “Though this law allows bets to be placed only within the physical boundaries of the state, it is a big step.”

He further adds, “But anyone who wants to place bets will have to be physically present in Sikkim.“

Gyatso, spoke about the development and said, “It is a big move for us. When horse racing is legal in our country, we can think of legalising betting in other forms of sports too. Also, we are hoping that we will be able to attract domestic tourists with this initiative.”

The bill comes at a time when spot-fixing and illegal betting, especially in Indian cricket has been prominent in the news. In fact, Justice Mukul Mudgal, head of a 2013 panel to probe the spot-fixing in the IPL had publicly spoken for legalizing sports betting to prevent black money transactions.

As per the reports from the 2012 Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and KPMG, the current betting market in India is almost ₹3 Lakhs crores.

Sikkim had been the first state to offer land based casinos in 2009 and has two operational casinos within 5-Star hotels.

In the last one year, the state had granted three operators licenses for online gaming, but asked them to withhold operations until amendments were made to the state’s existing laws. Finally, the law was amended in Aug, but locals were barred from playing, in a blow to the natives of the state.

While, the news has been well received by the majority, certain segments of opposition parties and local NGOs have come out criticizing the move, as encouraging the social evil of gambling.