AS the Diwali weekend veered to a close, Calcutta stockbroker Ratan Kumar was left with two options: sit at home and see which would get him first, the sweets or the firecrackers. Or vroom off to the "same old place" to take his mind off the market slump. In the event, he decided to check out a third option.
Kumar, 34, picked up his overnighter stuffed with a set of clothes, flew off to Kathmandu, stayed five-star, blew up some cash at the casino, made some, and was back home before his friends could say Sunderbans. It was the fourth time he had done so in the past ten months, and not always had his wife, Neeta, 32, known.
For bored men with big bank balances, the Nepali capital is fast emerging as the new place to be over weekends, as hotels and casinos woo inveterate Indian (and Pakistani) gamblers with a hamper of goodies. Free airline tickets. Free accommodation. Free breakfast. Free booze. You name it, they are dangling it all.
"It's Asia's Monte Carlo. It is close by. You don't need a passport. And what's more, this is one place where the Indian rupee fetches more than the local currency," says Kumar. "You can go there on Saturday morning and return Sunday evening. It's win-win all the way."
With one Indian rupee worth 1.6 Nepali rupees, Nepal has long been a tourist option #1 for filmmakers, honeymooners and pilgrims alike. But now that the Himalayan kingdom has become a getaway for upscale Indian and Pakistani gamblers who can't gamble by law and religion respectively.
Says Delhi businessman V.K. Malhotra: "The casinos have become a regular outing for the subcontinent's upper strata." With the monopoly of the Soaltee Holiday Inn having broken with the advent of democracy, and more hotels—Annapurna, Everest, Yak & Yeti—getting into the fray, competition has hotted up among the casinos. And they are leaving no incentive unoffered to woo clients.
The Soaltee's 'Casual Spinoff Package' at Rs 9,999 per person for three days and three nights, comes with free coupons worth Rs 10,000 which you can use at the casino. This in effect means, all a gambler needs to do is just get to Kathmandu. The rest is taken care of.
There are other freebies too. "Some casinos offer free return air tickets and free 3-star accommodation, in all worth Rs 20,000, if you play 12 hours in the card room," says Malhotra. Others offer free half-day sightseeing trips.
And obviously, they are not doling out these freebies out of charity. The incentives come your way only if you play seriously. Here serious translates playing 12 hours, which means a cool two lakh rupees down the drain. For the casinos, the incentives have a multiplier effect.
It brings in more customers. Last month, Malhotra dragged along his businessman-friend O.P. Chaudhury along to avail the free ticket. "This is the magic of junkets," says Niranjan Koirala, a Berkeley management guru who advised the Nepal government to open up the casinos to more players.
Koirala felt there was no justification for monopoly since there were no attractions for foreign tourists after dusk, when they returned from sightseeing trips. Opening up, he said, held much potential for a country whose chief revenue-earner is tourism.
Five years on, the spinoffs are already showing. And how. Ajay Bali of Thomas Cook talks of women who are planning yearend kitty parties: "They are pooling a part of the winnings for the final round in Kathmandu." The casinos recently even offered to clean up the Pashupatinath Temple. Reason: most male gamblers went there for good luck before sitting at a table. Women spent much time there while their husbands gambled away. Keeping the temple clean would help.
For the moment, much of the weekend rush is from Delhi, Calcutta and Karachi, which are closer to Kathmandu. Says Ajay Bali: "Mumbai-ites may look in on the casino, but that isn't their main purpose. Delhi and Calcutta have focused gamblers who may only look at the other attractions."
Nobody is in a position to say just how many weekenders are thronging Nepal. But travel agencies and airlines say there has been a noticeable spurt lately. "Nepal is a hot destination just now," says Kersi Dubash of Himalayan Holidays. "Not just for casinos. For rafting, trekking and pilgrimage too." Last fortnight, for instance, getting on a Royal Nepal Airlines (RNA) flight from Mumbai was tougher than footing it up the Everest. This, despite RNA operating three flights of 190-passenger capacity each week. RNA western India manager Govardhan Khadka has already sounded off bosses for an extra flight, circa 1998.
With the tourist inflow perking up, a host of travel agencies catering only to Nepal as a destination have sprung up in Indian metros. 'Visit Nepal' ads are all over newspapers. But information centres are few and far between elsewhere in the subcontinent. Then again, that's a problem for the lay visitor, not the gambler.
