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LETTER TO THE EDITOR FOR ISSUE DATED AUGUST 23, 2025
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR FOR ISSUE DATED AUGUST 23, 2025

Aug 23- Aug 29, 2025, Letters To The Editor August 22, 2025 , by

352, NOT OUT

THE latest news that casinos in Goa owe the government dues of over Rs352 cr is disturbing but not unexpected. In most countries, a percentage of gambling revenue is automatically routed for universal quality education (public schools) and then benefits scores of community up-liftment initiatives. NGO Street Providence repeatedly takes to the streets protesting against the Goa government’s failure to assist them financially, for their yeoman services to the underprivileged.
Goa, being as tiny and affluent as it is, should top the country in quality of its public school system, yet we regularly read of infrastructure failures at Goan schools.
Thailand’s intelligentsia and youth groups opposed their 36-year-old prime minister’s push for legalisation of gambling, despite her assurances that the best regulatory practices — the Singaporean model — would be implemented to protect both citizens and state. Mega American gaming hotel chains showed interest immediately, given the archipelago’s tourism potential. Spectrum gaming consultancy also tried to convince opponents of gambling, citing their firm’s decades of experience regulating integrated resorts in 6 continents. Hiring them as a consultant to handhold Goa’s figurehead gambling commission would kill many birds with one stone — scrupulous collection of gambling revenue, disbursement of the same for public education and community development drives, protection from India’s wily economic competitors/cybercriminals — who routinely exploit casinos for their own nefarious activities — and responsible gambling measures.
After Pahalgam, Goa has every right to demand Singapore’s gambling model is implemented here too, to prevent casinos being used for financing of terrorism.


Goans meekly accept corruption as part and parcel of being citizens of India; we tolerate back-to-back acts of criminal negligence, but extending the sin industry the same leeway threatens Goa’s future generations significantly. The latest warning from the UNODC clearly links billion dollar transnational crime syndicates, casinos and corruption, with rotten governance and lawlessness.
Goans should be aware of Turkey’s hardliner president Recep Erdogan. Twenty odd years ago, elected after making hate-filled, divisive speeches — where he praised the glory of the Ottoman Empire — Erdogan set up casinos in the annexed region of northern Cyprus. A gangster-cum-cocaine smuggler owned most of the gaming properties and lured politicians, law enforcement officers, wealthy Turkish industrialists, etcetera, to his nightclubs. After free drinks/party drugs, the guests were introduced to escorts, and the ensuing goings-on were secretly recorded.
The explicit videos were used to blackmail Erdogan’s opponents and raise funds for his political ambitions. The unregulated casinos and priceless sea-facing properties were used to launder proceeds of crime for the world’s richest cartels/sanctioned Russian oligarchs/billionaire Chinese businessmen evading CCP capital flight laws, and illicit FDI ensured Erdogan remained in power uninterrupted for over 22 years.
The latest exposé from the OCCRP details how criminals in northern Cyprus recruit college students to launder money through their personal bank accounts and online gambling websites
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. The TTAG competes with Thailand and Sri Lanka for international tourists, both countries are insisting on the Singaporean gambling model, Spectrum handles the Singaporean gaming commission’s duties. Indian law enforcement agencies have their own responsibilities, Goa deserves the strictest guardrails for casinos, without wasting time and resources through trial-and-error.
Intergenerational equity worth thousands of crores was looted by illegal mining companies and helped keep ministers in power for decades. Goa’s youth are already battling alcoholism and drug addiction, as did generations before them. We accept the credo “Corruption is our birthright and we shall have it,” but perhaps our future generations might not share the sentiment.
—Chris Fernandes, Miramar, Panjim

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