PANAJI: Goa's popular but controversial casino industry could soon go cashless, with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday saying the issue will be examined.
"However, the issue will be examined as per the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976, and rules framed thereunder," Parrikar told BJP legislator Alina Saldanha in a written reply at the ongoing monsoon session of the Goa assembly.
Saldanha had asked Parrikar, who is also the Finance minister, whether the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in the state has contemplated prohibition of all cash transactions at the Goa casinos, calling the use of cash at casino tables a "major loophole".
Goa has five operational offshore casinos and nine onshore casinos, which are patronised by hundreds of thousands every year.