Indian casino operator Delta Corp has told investors it expects the Supreme Court’s retrospective GST ruling to have a lighter impact on its casino business than on the country’s battered online gaming sector — an upbeat interpretation offered before the company had seen the full text of the order.
In a May 28th exchange filing, Delta Corp said that, based on the ‘limited information’ available, it understood that the chip-based revenue method it has applied since October 2023 would now also apply retrospectively to the July 2017–September 2023 period. The company described the interpretation as a ‘favorable outcome.’
That distinction sits at the heart of Delta Corp’s optimism. For physical casinos, the company argued, GST should apply to the amount players pay for chips, rather than to the gross value of every bet placed — a far larger figure that, in its words, has the effect of ‘notionally multiplying’ taxable revenue. The 28 percent levy on full bet value remains the heaviest burden for online real-money gaming operators, which the May 27th ruling explicitly reclassified as gambling.
The reassurance has done little to steady the stock, however, with Delta Corp shares sliding in the days following the ruling. Whether the casino read-through holds will depend on the detailed order, which is still awaited.
The stakes are considerable. Delta Corp’s 2023 tax demand of INR11,140 crore ($1.34 billion) amounted to roughly three times its market capitalization, while the group has already suspended its $285 million integrated resort project in Goa pending clarity on the tax treatment. The company said it would update the market once it had reviewed the full judgment.
