India
What has a population of over one billion people, an economy growing like gangbusters, and only one legal place to gamble. Does this sound familiar? No, its not Macau - its India.
For years, Goa has been the only state in India to allow real Las Vegas style gambling, and until very recently, there had been only one casino, the Casino Goa. Think about it, one casino for 1 billion people - now thats what I call a monopoly. Now, the Casino Goa isnt exactly the Bellagio, and its not exactly a riverboat casino that you might find somwhere in the midwest US. Its a boat docked off the coast. Its not that big, and not that flashy, but its a casino. Goa also has a handful of small slot machine casinos at some of the tourist hotels, but the Cotai Strip it ain’t!
A few years ago the Goan government tried to expand the number of legal offshore casinos by nine (or somthing like that), but there was a lot of local pushback so the government scaled back their plans to five new licenses (or maybe it was four). From what I’ve read, two new casinos are on their way and are close to opening as I write this (April 2008).
Now, a few more states in India are trying to get in the action. Sikkim, way on the other side of India, has recently passed legalised gaming and is planning on opening a five star hotel casino in Gangtok. In addition, the small Union Territory of Daman, near the huge cities of Mumbai and Pune is also making some noise. I have recently seen press reports that Thunderbird Resorts andHighstreet Cruises and Entertainment are separately trying to open casinos there.
As you can see, there is potential here, and you cant help but think some of the big casino companies must have their eyes on one of these locations. So for now, I keep following this country, thinking one day something big will happen here.