Fulbari Fishtail Gaming Company -- the operator of Fulbari Casino in Fulbari Resort and Spa -- has indicated that it would shut down the casino in the wake of the arrest of its director Piyush Bahadur Amatya.
The casino has been operating on loss for the past two years, particularly after the government tightened the entrance of Nepali citizens into the casino. If the casino is shut down, some 180 employees working in the casino will lose their jobs.
Employees of the casino, meanwhile, have started protest against possible shutdown of Pokhara´s first casino.
Fulbari Casino began operations from December, 2008 with 319 staffs. “But those were the days when we used to enjoy business of as much as Rs 8 million per day,” said Radha Prasad Gurung, the manager of the casino.
Presently, the casino hardly earns Rs 1 million a month and it is insufficient to meet even the operating cost.
According to Gurung, salary bill of the casino alone stands at about Rs 1.6 million per month. Apart from that, the company needs to spend additional half a million rupees to bear the food and transportation cost of the employees.
Due to low turnover, the casino management has been paying only basic salary to the staffers. As a result, more than 100 employees have already left the casino over the span of a month.
Meanwhile, organizing a press meet on the day, employees of the casino said the casino is on the verge of closure due to Amatya´s arrest. They have demanded for unconditional release of Amatya.
Amatya was arrested in Kathmandu last week after two of his formers partners filed a case against him, blaming him of cheating them. The case is being investigated by the police.
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