An inveterate risk-taker, Jaydev Mody is building casinos in an arena that has seen some of the biggest players fold
It is 2.30 am but in the Mandovi, the river that bisects Goa, the Deltin Royale is all bright lights and energy. India’s largest casino ship is bustling with every kind of punter, from honeymooning couples making eyes at each other over their roulette chips to boisterous groups of mostly male vacationers, who start with the slot machines but eventually give everything a shot.
It takes a second look to spot the real gamblers, the high-rollers who have flown in simply to play: A steel mill owner engrossed at the blackjack table; the high-profile bodyguard of a Bollywood actor, here off-duty, with his family; the six Chinese women playing quietly with a mountain of chips piled high before them, determined to beat the house.
The ship, outfitted in ’70s décor, complete with glass chandeliers, is open all day every day of the year. The casino is spread over four levels, and regulars—identified by the colour of the wristbands they are given at the entrance—play in the far quieter Royale poker room on level three, India’s largest gaming room. Tourists are mostly confined to the first two floors, which house the casino’s basic facilities. A large crowd of young tourists throngs the entertainment zones that offer dining facilities and live music. In another hall, a soloist plinks a lonely melody on her keyboard.
This could be a regular day at the Deltin Royale. But the smiling staff seem to be on edge. That’s because Jaydev Mody, chairman of Delta Corp, the company that owns and operates the casino, has just stepped on board.
Deltin Royale’s casino manager Rajae Sarhan, a Palestinian by birth, shows us around the ship. He has been a part of India’s still-nascent legal gambling industry since its inception at the dawn of the millennium. He worked aboard Caravela, India’s first casino ship, brought to Goa in 2001 by Advani Hotels and Resorts. Mody, he remembers, was a regular. “He loved to gamble but only took measured risks.” Sarhan’s assessment of his boss’s betting strategy is arguably the core of Mody’s business philosophy too.
The 58-year-old entrepreneur, who started out in the real estate and construction business, moved to casinos six years ago. At 52, when most people start planning their retirement, Mody turned a pleasurable pastime into a profit-making enterprise by studying the casino business and forming Delta Corp. His first bid was with the Deltin Jakq, the first of what is now a trio of casino ships. In 2010, brushing aside concerns that plagued the floundering gambling industry, he bought out Advani Hotels’s gaming licence and expanded. He refurbished the ageing Caravela, then hauled MV Horseshoe from North America to India; now renamed Deltin Royale, it is the largest vessel on the Mandovi, almost eight times the size of the Caravela.
Since Delta’s entry into casinos, it has invested massively in the hotel business to support gambling. The group now operates three hotels—the newest is a Rs 400-crore property in Daman—which keeps the casino traffic also housed in their own establishments. “I hate the hotel business, but you cannot separate the two,” Mody told us later.
Slowly but surely, he is building an empire in a business that India—or at least our government—seems to regard as somewhat disreputable.
A week later, we caught up with Mody on his home ground, the resting stables at the Royal Western India Turf Club in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. The club, which celebrated its 140th anniversary this April, is far removed from the bright lights and sounds of the floating casinos. Yet, historically, gamblers have been drawn to horses as much as to the tables.
Not everyone does. The perception of shady ethics in the gambling world hovers over the business in India. And Mody acknowledges that it has destroyed kingdoms and ruined families over the centuries. But, he points out, so have liquor and other more harmful things. Looking down at his pack of Marlboros (he has been trying to kick the habit for decades), he says, “I don’t find gambling negative at all. Gaming is fun and I enjoy it. As long as you have control and are a responsible gambler, there is nothing wrong.”
Mumbai’s ‘big bull’ Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was an early investor in the company. Known in the bourses for his savvy investment timing, Jhunjhunwala entered when Delta Corp was looking for a private equity investor; his syndicate owns about 10 percent of Delta Corp. He and Mody are now friends and even own horses together. Mody describes the market man as a “controlled gambler”.
Over the next 15 years, the duo were among the pioneers responsible for the transformation of central Mumbai’s crumbling mills district. In 1999, they opened the city’s first mall, Crossroads (now Sobo Central), at Tardeo; their Peninsula Corporate Park was the first from-the-ground-up redevelopment into an office complex in the area, which has morphed into a gentrified commercial and residential neighbourhood.
(This story appears in the May-June 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)