Nepal is a small landlocked country located in South Asia mainly known for its breathtaking landscapes in the Himalayas. Its location is actually one of the main tourist attractions within the country who love nature, hiking and great adventures. In order to boost its tourism, the country’s government decided to introduce relayed casino restrictions so that more venues of this kind can open their doors here and potentially bring more tourists.
These relaxed gambling restrictions are mainly about easing the country’s current casino location requirements for setting land-based gambling venues as well as electronic gaming facilities. This way, Nepal is looking to attract more tourists as well as attract any kind of foreign investment and finally boost its land-based casino development. In order to turn these ideas into reality, the country’s lawmakers decided to come together on the 27th of June in a Cabinet meeting.
At the meeting, the lawmakers will discuss further steps which should be taken so that Nepal allows electronic gaming halls and casinos to be legally built up to a three-kilometer distance from Nepal local news outlets, international borders as reported by the Kathmandu Post news service. Under the country’s original clause related to the industry Casino Regulation 2013, electronic gaming houses and casinos had to be situated at least five kilometers away from the country’s international borders.
Luxury Hotels Currently Under Development
At the moment, there is a number of five-stars, luxurious hotels, and resorts which are currently in their developmental stage located near the country’s border with India. Several developers invested in these projects have already complained about the Nepalese previous restrictions which were placed on casino location requirements. The developers argued that these restrictions, in particular, have prevented them from adding extra facilities which can lure more customers at their hotels and resorts in the first-place casinos.
The country welcomed more than one million off international tourists in 2018 which is around 25% more than in 2017. As tourism is flourishing in Nepal as well as across other South Asian countries, many hospitality operators including hoteliers have been looking for new ways to lure a greater number of customers and visitors with a number of exciting offerings, including land-based gambling facilities.
More than 200,000 tourists came to Nepal from India just last year while 150,000 came from China. The main reason behind these numbers is the fact that casino gambling is very much limited to Indian players whole it is completely banned in some areas of Mainland China.
Country’s Lawmakers Working on a New Nepalese Casino Act
Commenting on the latest news of Nepal introducing relaxed casino restrictions, the country’s Tourism Ministry said that the Nepalese government has already shown and will continue to show flexibility when it comes to casino restrictions.
Hence, it will allow casinos to operate at a distance of up to three kilometers from the Nepalese international borders. He also added that these measures are directly related to the country’s tourism campaigns such as its upcoming Visit Nepal campaign. As reported recently, the country lawmakers are tirelessly working on introducing this new Casino Act which will be directly tacked onto the Nepalese Tourism Act and which will look forward to updating or even replacing the Nepalese Casino Act introduced in 2013.
