Shillong, Sept 15: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has reiterated that the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government will not go ahead with its decision to establish a casino following stiff opposition from different quarters of the society.

“As soon as the people expressed their concerns about this (casino) we have put a stop to any further proceedings in this aspect,” Sangma said while addressing a meeting to welcome the joining of two MDCs of JHADC to the NPP’s fold on Thursday.

Stating that the government is keeping the people first before its plans to increase the revenue of the state, the chief minister said, “Let me assure all of you that without taking the people into confidence there is no question of further movement in this line (establishing of casinos),” adding “there should not be any doubt in people’s mind that this party and this government will ever do anything that will go against the will and the desire of the people of our state.”

He said all processes have stopped since the time the public debates and discussions on casinos started and from the time the church leaders and different organizations started meeting the government and expressed their concerns.

Referring to the MDA as a ‘people’s centric government’, Sangma said, “We need to listen to the people’s voice and hence we understand that there is a huge opportunity for revenue but there are concerns that the people still have and hence we say will not move further.”

On the demand to cancel the provisional licenses issued to three parties for opening of casinos in Meghalaya, the chief minister said all such licenses have also been stopped following the protests.

He, however, said the licenses were issued much before the public debate started but the provisional licenses are based on conditions which will “lapse automatically” if the process of setting up does not start.

“Hence, when this public debate started, we immediately put a stop to any paperwork to be done in this regard. We have put a stop to any kind of permission to open up the casinos. However, legally it is not just possible for us to say we cancel because it will go to court but as a provisional license, it requires them to start operating within a certain period of time and if they do not then the provisional licenses automatically lapse and they cannot continue with this,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the chief minister said that the entire exercise of coming up with the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 was to regulate the existing gaming parlours and with an aim to generate revenue for the state, which has been affected with the ban on coal mining and still has to look into the different requirements of the various sectors.

According to him, there are multiple gaming parlours or “jackpot parlours”, which are running everywhere in the city and different parts of the state but there is no law to regulate them and they have been functioning without paying any tax. Therefore, the government felt it is important to regulate these different jackpot parlours and hence gaming regulation came in.

The chief minister further informed that the government can generate up to Rs 500 crore of revenue a year.

“In the regulation of course we had options of online gaming and offline gaming and we felt if there is a mechanism through which we can have offline gaming also that means all these games are being played in the table which is what casinos are. If we can have these kinds of games in a separate gaming zones which is away from our main cities and in an area which is closer towards Guwahati and if we are able to earn substantial revenue from it so that we can pay different aspects of teachers, different schools to be built, different hospitals to be built so on and so forth the different issues that we have, we calculated that this sector has approximate possibility of giving us Rs 500 crore of revenue a year,” he said.

“With all the difficulties and other mining issues, the government of Meghalaya had to explore different options. So we thought that if these gaming zones are away from the cities and main part of the state and in a specific area confined to specific location and we ensure that locals cannot play there, then we will be able to get our revenue also and we will be able to at the same time ensure that the social impact of these kinds of things is not there on our youths and the citizens,” he asserted.

The Chief Minister further clarified that the State Government has no intention to repeal the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act and Rules 2021.

“There will be certain areas which we will be examining but as I said, as of now, the act is in place, the question of repealing the act is not there. We have concerns about the online gaming in terms of the jackpot parlours, they need to be regulated, they have not been regulated for the last 25 years,” the CM said.

“So, therefore, even if it requires that we wait for some time to regulate those also, we can do that because for the last 25 years we have not but it was important to frame a law and rules in place so that regulation of this kind of thing can happen whether online or offline,” he added.