{"id":777000480,"date":"2022-11-28T12:35:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T15:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777000480"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:33:50","slug":"sri-lankan-committee-proposes-creation-of-dedicated-casino-regulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lankan-committee-proposes-creation-of-dedicated-casino-regulator","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan committee proposes creation of dedicated casino regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The chairman of the Committee on Public Finance said the country was unique in not having a dedicated body to issue casino licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sri Lanka.- Sri Lanka&#8217;s<strong> Committee on Public Finance<\/strong> has suggested that the country was create a dedicated casino regulatory authority. <strong>Harsha da Silva<\/strong>, the chairman of the committee, said no other countries grant casino licences without a casino regulatory body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July, the government of Sri Lanka announced that it would <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-to-issue-casino-licences-to-boost-tax-collection\" target=\"_blank\">issue casino licences<\/a>&nbsp;to existing operators obtain new income and boost the economy in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Cabinet of Ministers has approved amendments to a 1988 betting law to<strong>&nbsp;raise the annual tax on gambling companies<\/strong>&nbsp;from LKR200m to LKR500m (US$1.4m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move is aimed at ensuring casino operators pay taxes. According to authorities, some $7.4m in taxes are owed. The committee warned that there is no clear understanding of whether casinos are paying the appropriate taxes or how much tax has been collected by the government, and there is no regulation regarding existing casinos beyond the four registered licensees. It said it will now conduct a comparative study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Businesses can apply for a licence in multiples of five years, with fees paid in advance. five-year renewable licences cost $1.36m. A condition of the licence is that no soliciting for the purpose of prostitution takes place on the premises, and no drunkenness or disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>See also:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/kreate-design-to-develop-casino-at-colombo-lotus-tower\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kreate Design to develop casino at Colombo Lotus Tower<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chairman of the Committee on Public Finance said the country was unique in not having a dedicated body to issue casino licences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Sri Lanka's Committee on Public Finance has recommended establishing a dedicated casino regulatory authority, citing the country's unique lack of such a body and significant issues with tax collection from existing operators. This initiative follows government plans to issue new five-year casino licences to boost post-pandemic income, alongside increasing annual gambling taxes from LKR200m to LKR500m.","focusai_entities":"Committee on Public Finance, Harsha da Silva, Cabinet of Ministers, Kreate Design","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Colombo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Authority Scope","query":"What specific powers and enforcement mechanisms will the proposed dedicated casino regulatory authority in Sri Lanka possess, and how will its governance framework ensure independence and efficiency?"},{"label":"Tax Revenue Impact","query":"How will the increased annual tax and improved collection mechanisms impact the gross gaming revenue (GGR) and net gaming revenue (NGR) of existing and new casino operators in Sri Lanka, and what is the projected uplift in government revenue?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16334],"tags":[23911,23907],"class_list":["post-777000480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777000480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777000517,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000480\/revisions\/777000517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777000480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777000480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777000480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}