ET BureauThe courtyard at The Deltin in the coastal union territory of Daman tries to recreate the feel of a beachside resort. The long and curved pool with a bar at one end and sunbeds on the edge that allow guests to dip their torsos in water also has a beach-like slope to wade into.
Like on Indian beaches, sometimes guests do wade right in, wearing t-shirts, banyans or even long flowing nightgowns. For a five-star hotel, this isn’t a pretty sight. So, a staff member gently requests a guest to don swimwear, only to face the materteral retort: “Do you expect us to wear bikinis?”
Daman, a former Portuguese colony, actually has its own swimwear for women, easily available in the markets near Devka beach. Inspired by the salwar kurta, the innovative swimwear works well with the conservative clientele in the swimming pools of Daman’s hotels.
The beach town — often called a mini-Goa — has a church of Bom Jesus (Goa has the Basilica), and small Portuguesebuilt forts on either side of the Daman Ganga that flows through to the Arabian Sea. Devka is not much of a beach, largely rocky, with little sand — but has all the hotels around it.
The better beach, Jampore, has no hotels around, and offers cheap thrills such as horse and camel rides. The real attraction of Daman is the availability of cheap liquor — in the middle of Gujarat where it is prohibited.
Weekend evenings turn this heritage town into a quaint drinking joint preferred by the Gujarati folk and visitors from Mumbai.
Hard-drinking American comedian WC Fields once famously said: “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.”
Tourists to Daman have enough of the grog and, although ‘wild women’ will remain a fantasy at best, they will soon get a chance to spend their money (perhaps even more than half ) on Fields’ other not-so-trivial pursuit of gambling.
Daman, a mix of European heritage and Gujarati ethos, now awaits its first casino, which will be housed in The Deltin; the casino can be up and running within three months of getting a licence.
Delta Corp, the company focused on casinos in Goa and promoted by Jaydev Mody, has built The Deltin in Daman.
Set away from both the beaches, the hotel got its five-star certification a month and a half back and has now applied for a casino licence.
The Deltin, spread over 10 acres, is the only five-star hotel in the town, and the casino of course will be — an appropriate metaphor the only game in town.
The Game Changers
Still with the ‘game’ metaphor, the casino can be a game-changer for Daman, Delta Corp and the gaming business in India. It can also pitchfork Jaydev Mody as India’s foremost gaming evangelist.
Mody himself has been a gambling and horse-racing enthusiast. He’s at ease setting up a poker table at his home in South Mumbai for a photo shoot for ET Magazine, and owns 55 horses. On Sunday, October 12, Mody’s colt Quasar won the Pune Derby with stake money of Rs 50 lakh.
Today, Mody is less of a gambler and gamer, and more of an entrepreneur in that space. Delta Corp, which runs two offshore casinos on the Mandovi river in Goa, raked in gaming revenues of Rs 257 crore in 2013-14.
Broking house Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd (MOSL) in a report on the company in September estimated that Delta Corp’s gaming revenues can more than double by 2016-17 to Rs 563 crore, with a compounded annual growth rate of 30%.
Mody will soon set sail on the Mandovi with another smaller casino vessel, the Deltin Caravela, at the peak of Goa’s tourist season to utilize the third casino licence he owns.
Unlike his other two vessels (the Deltin Jakq and Deltin Royale) that are large casinos, the Caravela is designed for charters by groups and for parties.
In 2013, Mody acquired the Caravela, Goa’s first offshore casino, from Advani Hotels & Resorts.
After running the old ship for a while, Mody has now retired the vessel and brought in a new one that will be ready to launch in two months.
With the new Caravela and the upcoming casino in Daman, Mody is eyeing the jackpot. The two new products can increase the number of people who can play at Delta Corp casinos at the same time from 2,000 to 3,400.
Mody hates the hotels business. “For the kind of capital it needs, the returns are really low. I do not see why people keep investing in hotels,” says Mody.
Well, he has little choice but to do so, for as he himself puts it: “Where will our casino patrons stay otherwise?” For the time being, Mody is running his Daman hotel on hospitality revenues — which accrue from weekend visits, marriages and conferences.
In their report, MOSL analysts Atil Mehra and Niket Shah say: “We believe Delta is at an inflection point. The investment phase is behind and the launch of the Daman casino could trigger significant cash generation...beginning financial year 2016.”
Against the Odds
While the future holds promise there are question marks in the present. Delta Corp exited its Kenyan realty business earlier this year, which will result in a dip in revenue in 2014-15.
On October 16, Delta Corp reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 3.52 crore for the quarter ended September 2014.
The company today has a market capitalization of Rs 2,000 crore, with its share price hovering around Rs 87, well below the high of Rs 127 it hit in January 2014 before The Deltin was launched.
The bigger uncertainty is not financial, but regulatory. Apart from Daman, there aren’t many options for Delta Corp to garner scale.
Last year, the Goa government under Manohar Parrikar vacillated for almost four months before allowing Delta Corp to bring in a large vessel named MV Horseshoe from North America as a casino to replace an ageing vessel. Now renamed Deltin Royale, it is the largest casino on the Mandovi.
Still, casinos remain the political whipping boys in Goa. This year on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, the Congress demanded all casinos must stay closed, and the government agreed.
Delta owns three of the six offshore casino licences in Goa. Onshore casinos in Goa are only allowed to have electronic gaming. Apart from Goa and Daman, India allows casinos only in Sikkim.
Mody says while he is ready to invest in Sikkim, he wants the upcoming airport to be completed first and that project has been delayed. Delta has acquired land in Sri Lanka, which has casinos, but regulatory issues — mainly the decision to allot only annual licences — have deterred Mody.
Similar issues have kept him away from Nepal, too. Mody and Delta took active interest in a racecourse project in Ludhiana that the Punjab government announced in 2013.
Mody had urged the government to allow casinos in the area too as horse-racing is a seasonal activity. While Delta technically qualified in the bid to build the racecourse, Mody says nothing else moved after that.
Labour of Love
For Jaydev Mody, this is a second coming. He ended his first inning in realty and textiles eight years ago when the Piramal group of companies split. Faced with a choice of working with either of the two groups — one led by his sister Urvi Piramal and the other by his friend Ajay Piramal — Mody decided to retire at 50.
After a couple of years, he started investing in his hobby, gambling, and acquired three licences in Goan offshore casinos, one by one. He also invested in a Kenyan realty business through Delta Corp along with Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who invested in his personal capacity.
Mody lives the good life. He lives in Mumbai, off Peddar Road in a house named Barry Villa, with his wife, celebrated corporate lawyer Zia Mody, and their three daughters. The family shares the home with six labradors — “only two of which, Neo and Nala, hang out with me” — and the villa is tastefully done up with sculptures and paintings.
But it’s when you speak about games of chance that you spy the gleam in Mody’s eye. He proudly shows a video on his phone of his horse Quasar racing ahead. Today, though, it’s all about business plans, with little left to chance. In Daman, although still awaiting a casino licence, Mody talks of the possibility of expanding his plan of a 150-table operation to 200 in quick time.
The hotel has also built a small exclusive casino on a higher floor for special guests. The presidential suites at the hotel come with special plunge pools tucked away from the view of the rest of the hoi polloi. There will be a helipad too.
Clearly, Mody plans to not just attract the typical thirsty tourist to Daman but also the high rollers who wouldn’t think twice before hopping on a flight to Macau or Vegas. And many of whom, perhaps, will be more at ease in bikinis.
Like on Indian beaches, sometimes guests do wade right in, wearing t-shirts, banyans or even long flowing nightgowns. For a five-star hotel, this isn’t a pretty sight. So, a staff member gently requests a guest to don swimwear, only to face the materteral retort: “Do you expect us to wear bikinis?”
Daman, a former Portuguese colony, actually has its own swimwear for women, easily available in the markets near Devka beach. Inspired by the salwar kurta, the innovative swimwear works well with the conservative clientele in the swimming pools of Daman’s hotels.
The beach town — often called a mini-Goa — has a church of Bom Jesus (Goa has the Basilica), and small Portuguesebuilt forts on either side of the Daman Ganga that flows through to the Arabian Sea. Devka is not much of a beach, largely rocky, with little sand — but has all the hotels around it.
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Weekend evenings turn this heritage town into a quaint drinking joint preferred by the Gujarati folk and visitors from Mumbai.
Hard-drinking American comedian WC Fields once famously said: “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.”
Tourists to Daman have enough of the grog and, although ‘wild women’ will remain a fantasy at best, they will soon get a chance to spend their money (perhaps even more than half ) on Fields’ other not-so-trivial pursuit of gambling.
Daman, a mix of European heritage and Gujarati ethos, now awaits its first casino, which will be housed in The Deltin; the casino can be up and running within three months of getting a licence.
Delta Corp, the company focused on casinos in Goa and promoted by Jaydev Mody, has built The Deltin in Daman.
Set away from both the beaches, the hotel got its five-star certification a month and a half back and has now applied for a casino licence.
The Deltin, spread over 10 acres, is the only five-star hotel in the town, and the casino of course will be — an appropriate metaphor the only game in town.
Still with the ‘game’ metaphor, the casino can be a game-changer for Daman, Delta Corp and the gaming business in India. It can also pitchfork Jaydev Mody as India’s foremost gaming evangelist.
Mody himself has been a gambling and horse-racing enthusiast. He’s at ease setting up a poker table at his home in South Mumbai for a photo shoot for ET Magazine, and owns 55 horses. On Sunday, October 12, Mody’s colt Quasar won the Pune Derby with stake money of Rs 50 lakh.
Today, Mody is less of a gambler and gamer, and more of an entrepreneur in that space. Delta Corp, which runs two offshore casinos on the Mandovi river in Goa, raked in gaming revenues of Rs 257 crore in 2013-14.
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Mody will soon set sail on the Mandovi with another smaller casino vessel, the Deltin Caravela, at the peak of Goa’s tourist season to utilize the third casino licence he owns.
Unlike his other two vessels (the Deltin Jakq and Deltin Royale) that are large casinos, the Caravela is designed for charters by groups and for parties.
In 2013, Mody acquired the Caravela, Goa’s first offshore casino, from Advani Hotels & Resorts.
After running the old ship for a while, Mody has now retired the vessel and brought in a new one that will be ready to launch in two months.
With the new Caravela and the upcoming casino in Daman, Mody is eyeing the jackpot. The two new products can increase the number of people who can play at Delta Corp casinos at the same time from 2,000 to 3,400.
Mody hates the hotels business. “For the kind of capital it needs, the returns are really low. I do not see why people keep investing in hotels,” says Mody.
Well, he has little choice but to do so, for as he himself puts it: “Where will our casino patrons stay otherwise?” For the time being, Mody is running his Daman hotel on hospitality revenues — which accrue from weekend visits, marriages and conferences.
In their report, MOSL analysts Atil Mehra and Niket Shah say: “We believe Delta is at an inflection point. The investment phase is behind and the launch of the Daman casino could trigger significant cash generation...beginning financial year 2016.”
Against the Odds
While the future holds promise there are question marks in the present. Delta Corp exited its Kenyan realty business earlier this year, which will result in a dip in revenue in 2014-15.
On October 16, Delta Corp reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 3.52 crore for the quarter ended September 2014.
The company today has a market capitalization of Rs 2,000 crore, with its share price hovering around Rs 87, well below the high of Rs 127 it hit in January 2014 before The Deltin was launched.
The bigger uncertainty is not financial, but regulatory. Apart from Daman, there aren’t many options for Delta Corp to garner scale.
Last year, the Goa government under Manohar Parrikar vacillated for almost four months before allowing Delta Corp to bring in a large vessel named MV Horseshoe from North America as a casino to replace an ageing vessel. Now renamed Deltin Royale, it is the largest casino on the Mandovi.
Still, casinos remain the political whipping boys in Goa. This year on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, the Congress demanded all casinos must stay closed, and the government agreed.
Delta owns three of the six offshore casino licences in Goa. Onshore casinos in Goa are only allowed to have electronic gaming. Apart from Goa and Daman, India allows casinos only in Sikkim.
Mody says while he is ready to invest in Sikkim, he wants the upcoming airport to be completed first and that project has been delayed. Delta has acquired land in Sri Lanka, which has casinos, but regulatory issues — mainly the decision to allot only annual licences — have deterred Mody.
Similar issues have kept him away from Nepal, too. Mody and Delta took active interest in a racecourse project in Ludhiana that the Punjab government announced in 2013.
Mody had urged the government to allow casinos in the area too as horse-racing is a seasonal activity. While Delta technically qualified in the bid to build the racecourse, Mody says nothing else moved after that.
For Jaydev Mody, this is a second coming. He ended his first inning in realty and textiles eight years ago when the Piramal group of companies split. Faced with a choice of working with either of the two groups — one led by his sister Urvi Piramal and the other by his friend Ajay Piramal — Mody decided to retire at 50.
After a couple of years, he started investing in his hobby, gambling, and acquired three licences in Goan offshore casinos, one by one. He also invested in a Kenyan realty business through Delta Corp along with Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who invested in his personal capacity.
Mody lives the good life. He lives in Mumbai, off Peddar Road in a house named Barry Villa, with his wife, celebrated corporate lawyer Zia Mody, and their three daughters. The family shares the home with six labradors — “only two of which, Neo and Nala, hang out with me” — and the villa is tastefully done up with sculptures and paintings.
But it’s when you speak about games of chance that you spy the gleam in Mody’s eye. He proudly shows a video on his phone of his horse Quasar racing ahead. Today, though, it’s all about business plans, with little left to chance. In Daman, although still awaiting a casino licence, Mody talks of the possibility of expanding his plan of a 150-table operation to 200 in quick time.
The hotel has also built a small exclusive casino on a higher floor for special guests. The presidential suites at the hotel come with special plunge pools tucked away from the view of the rest of the hoi polloi. There will be a helipad too.
Clearly, Mody plans to not just attract the typical thirsty tourist to Daman but also the high rollers who wouldn’t think twice before hopping on a flight to Macau or Vegas. And many of whom, perhaps, will be more at ease in bikinis.
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