In South Dehli, one of 11 revenue districts in India‘s capital city of New Delhi, police raided a sprawling farmhouse on Tuesday night where an illegal casino was reportedly operating and some 30 individuals were arrested.
At the 13-acre farmhouse on Dera Mandi road in south Delhi, which according to New Delhi Television (NDTV) is also frequently used for TV shoots, police seized 13 luxury cars, casino chips amounting to more than 3 crores (approx. US$468K), hookahs and a large number of liquor bottles. A large roulette table along with other gambling equipment was also discovered by police.
The news agency reports that according to police, 14 of the 30 people who were arrested were caught gambling and five women who were reportedly casino attendants at the makeshift casino were also arrested.
“The 30 persons who have been arrested include 14 players and 5 female casino attendants. The rest of them were bar attendants. Among the players, few were businessmen,” news agency IANS quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh, as reported by NDTV.
A retired Army officer owns the large farmhouse which was reportedly run by a man named Radhe Shyam.
Last night’s raid comes on the heels of another such incident in October last year in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area where nearly 3,000 gambling chips worth millions of rupees were discovered and eight people were arrested.
With the exception of Daman, Sikkim and Goa, casinos are illegal in India.
The largest casino in India is Deltin Daman Casino, which is located in Daman. The casino has approximately 60,000 square feet of gaming space with approximately 1,000 slot and video poker machines and 30 gaming tables.