Casino operations in Goa restarted from November 1 with 50 per cent capacity. There are six offshore casinos and eight onshore casinos in Goa. The casino operations in Goa had been suspended on account of the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020. Before Covid-19 pandemic, the casinos were very popular with hundreds of thousands of tourists visiting every year. Goa CM Pramod Sawant said the casino operators will have to pay licence fees per month instead of annual fees since the casinos were shut since March. Relevantly, casinos are a major contributor to the state’s revenue. Casino operators have been urging the government to allow the restart of operations. They feel restarting the casino business would boost tourism in the state. In the financial year 2018-19, Goa government has collected Rs 411 crore in revenue from onshore and offshore casinos. The casino business has gone up from Rs 135.45 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 411 crore in 2018-19. Just before lockdown, particularly on weekends, each venue used to make a turnover of around Rs 120-crore per year and had 600-800 people per vessel, say industry insiders. India’s economy was already facing a slowdown earlier and the hit from Covid-19 had made it worse. Businesses were at standstill as the lockdown had brought the economic activity to a halt. With staff members being on leave, it could take a few weeks for the casino business to be running full steam.