After laying down the laws to legalise gambling in record time over the past two years, the Conrad K Sangma led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government is in full swing to set up casinos in Ri Bhoi district, sources said.
In the rest of the country, barring three states, gambling is still illegal.
Sources said that the authorities and promoters are looking at four likely spots for setting up the casinos– two each in Khanapara and Jorabat, which fall under the Raid Marwet on the Assam-Meghalaya border.
“Talks are going on with land owners,” said a local source.
The NPP led MDA government had passed the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021, which was published in the Gazette on 26, March, 2021 after receiving the Governors consent.
The Meghalaya Gambling Commission has been set up under this Act paving the way for making the state one of the gambling centres in the country. Reports said that Meghalaya is following the footsteps of her sisters Sikkim and Nagaland. Goa is another state which has passed similar laws that allow gambling.
The rules to implement the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 were notified by the Commissioner of Taxes, Government of Meghalaya, on December 21, 2021.
Under this gambling regime all kinds of “games of skill’ and “games of chance”, whether online or physical are permitted under a license granted to companies for a period of five years.
The government hopes to earn revenue from levying royalty on the licensees which will be a fixed percentage of the gross revenue earned by the company running the gambling operations.
Meghalaya Gaming Commission has recently released a job notification for the recruitment of two member vacancies in March 2022, said a report in a newspaper. The Gambling Commission consists of three persons: chairperson who has to be a retired judge of a High Court and two members, one with experience and knowledge of the gambling industry and the other a person from a civil society organization or NGO.
It is not known whether the government will be following the general convention where casinos are run of not allowing the local citizenry to participate in the gambling in these casinos. Of course, they have no control over who enters gambling portals online.
Meghalaya is already used to the gambling culture being the home of Teer, a unique form of gambling based on betting on archery competition. Teer is run under the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018 while lottery based gambling comes under the Meghalaya Lottery (Regulation) Rules, 2019.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970, which was the mainstay of the lobby against gambling, has been made redundant.
