Panaji, Jan 3 (FP): Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Friday said the government was not in favour of stopping the operations of five existing casinos “in one go”.Addressing a press conference, Parsekar said offshore casinos were generating considerable income for the Goa government but added that no new casinos would be granted permission, reports IANS.

“Their business is going on. They were permitted… It was because of permissions maybe of the earlier government that they are functioning there. Bucking such a set business may end up in someone going to court,” Parsekar said. Goa has five operational offshore casinos and about 10 five-star hotel operated onshore casinos which attract hundreds of thousands of gamblers to the state annually.

The BJP, which had been opposing casinos for years before the 2012 assembly election, had promised in its election manifesto to do away with the casinos in Mandovi river off Panaji. However, after coming to power, the party insisted that it would relocate the casinos to deeper seas off Goa after four years by 2016.