Indian Delta Corp announced profit growth

Delta Corp, the leading Indian casino operator, announced a rise in profits despite a tough increase in fees and taxes on its operations at Goa casinos.

On Monday, Delta Corp reported that the company's net revenue in the third quarter of 2018 reached $27.4 million, a 39% increase over the same period last year. Profit increased by 16.4% - to 760 million rupees, and net profit after tax increased by 11% - to 481 million rupees ($ 6.54 million) - compared with the previous year.

Delta operates four casinos in the state of Goa, as well as Casino Deltin Denzong in the state of Sikkim and the online gambling segment, including the country's largest poker site. In addition, the company owns an integrated resort in Daman, which has not yet been granted a license.

Gambling operations at Delta Casino generated gross income of 2.03 billion rupees, which is almost 15% higher than the result of the first fiscal quarter. The growth is partly due to a breakdown in the market, after the state government sharply raised the gambling tax in April of this year.

The increase in operator expenses has led to the fact that some of them have temporarily slowed down and at least two operators have ceased to operate at all. Analysts at Emkay Research have suggested that the company's results for the second quarter are an indicator of the undermining of the work of smaller land-based casinos.

Delta operations in the online segment meanwhile declined, revenue in the second quarter was only 351.6 million rupees, which is 10% less than in the first quarter, although it is 46% more compared to the same period last year. Reportedly, consistent declines in marketing costs.

We also should recall that government of India took the initiative to legalize online gambling and betting.

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