By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : A stone’s throw away from Kathmandu’s royal palace, workers are busy erecting a new building on the premises of the Malla Hotel, a former residence of the erstwhile Rana rulers that was upgraded to a five-star hotel. However, it is not an extension of the hotel. The new building is for Nepal’s newest and ninth casino, Casino Katmandu.
With an initial investment of about $1 million, the casino, whose launch has been delayed by legal and procedural wrangles, would mark a new twist to Nepal’s casino industry that has been characterised by monopoly since its inception.
The first casino in the kingdom, Casino Nepal on the grounds of the Soaltee Crowne Plaza, where Dev Anand shot scenes of his blockbuster “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”, was a collaboration between an uncle of the current king Gyanendra and a member of Bhutan’s royal family.
Later, the management of the casino was given to an American, Richard Doyle Tuttle, who began building a chain of gaming stations.
Currently, there are eight casinos in Nepal – seven in Kathmandu and one in Pokhara city, a popular tourist destination.
The Nepal Recreation Center (NRC), a joint venture with foreign direct investment, which enjoys monopoly in Nepal’s money-spinning gambling industry, runs all eight.
However, while Tuttle was the undisputed chief of NRC in the past, he is now locked in an ownership dispute with his former protégé and partner, Indian Rakesh Wadhwa.
Currently, the two are fighting a legal battle for control of the casino kingdom.
While Tuttle is running five of the casinos, including the one in Pokhara, Wadhwa manages the remaining three. Of the three, Wadhwa’s wife Shalini runs Casino Shangri-la, which was inaugurated by Bollywood star Urmila Matondkar.
Sources say the Wadhwa group faced stiff opposition when they planned to open the casino. They were able to open it only in 2006 after the fall of King Gyanendra’s government.
The planning of Casino Katmandu has created another piquant situation now. It is being pushed by the Tuttle group, with the Indian side saying they have no knowledge about it.
If Tuttle loses the court battle, he says he will run the new casino under a new management company.
The American, who says he will win the tussle, is confident that the current laws can be amended to allow a new player in the gaming industry, ending the monopolistic regime.
Tuttle has signed an agreement with Hotel Malla to run the upcoming Casino Katmandu.
“I am in favour of all the casinos being run by the same company,” Tuttle told IANS. “But (if the court verdict goes against me) we can change the name of the (management) company.”
The American casino baron, who also plans to manage a floating casino in India’s Goa state, says Nepal could have more casinos without fear of infighting among the existing ones since the casinos do not depend on Nepalis – who are forbidden by law to patronise them – but on the tourist traffic that has been rising since the Maoists began a ceasefire with the government last year.
“There are 140 million people in Bangladesh and another 140 million in Pakistan,” Tuttle says. “India has one billion and China more than that. Then there is Thailand, Vietnam… The problem is that there are so few airlines (connecting them with Kathmandu) and so few airline seats.”