{"id":777013268,"date":"2024-02-19T08:52:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T11:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777013268"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:53:40","slug":"sri-lanka-committee-questions-delay-in-forming-gambling-regulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-committee-questions-delay-in-forming-gambling-regulator","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: committee questions delay in forming gambling regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Sri Lanka Parliament\u2019s Committee on Public Finance expects legislation to be finalised by March 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka.-\u00a0The Sri Lanka Parliament\u2019s Committee on Public Finance (COPF)<\/strong>\u00a0has expressed concern over the failure to meet the government’s commitment to establish a gaming regulator by December 31, 2023. COPF members stressed the urgency of enacting relevant legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report by EconomyNext, they pointed out that the absence of adequate regulations has resulted in substantial financial losses for the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COPF has also summoned the director general of fiscal policy to provide information regarding both physical and online casinos, including tax revenues generated. It called for a plan to recover outstanding taxes owed by gaming establishments. It has granted a two-week extension for the submission of requested information<\/strong>, with expectations for the legislation to be completed by March 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ministry of finance representative acknowledged the need for additional expertise to develop a robust revenue model akin to that of Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casinos are estimated to owe US$7.4m in taxes\u00a0due to a lack of regulatory oversight<\/a>. The Cabinet of Ministers gave its approval to draft a bill for the creation of\u00a0a Gambling Regulatory Authority<\/a>\u00a0last June.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan to regulate gaming would allow operators to obtain licences for up to 20 years, with five-year renewable licences costing US$1.36m. In January, the government reported it was\u00a0assessing 10 applications for casinos<\/a>. State minister for Finance,\u00a0Ranjith Siyambalapitiya<\/strong>, confirmed that the applications were at various stages of evaluation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sri Lanka Parliament\u2019s Committee on Public Finance expects legislation to be finalised by March 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":10356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Sri Lanka Parliament\u2019s Committee on Public Finance (COPF) has expressed significant concern over delays in establishing a gaming regulator and enacting comprehensive legislation, citing substantial government revenue losses from unregulated physical and online casinos. The COPF has mandated the finalization of legislation by March 31 and is seeking a plan to recover an estimated US$7.4 million in outstanding taxes from gaming establishments. The government is currently evaluating 10 casino licence applications under a proposed framework that includes 20-year licences and US$1.36 million for five-year renewals, while seeking expertise to develop a robust revenue model.","focusai_entities":"Sri Lanka Parliament\u2019s Committee on Public Finance, EconomyNext, Ministry of Finance, Cabinet of Ministers, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Singapore","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Revenue Model Specifics?","query":"Beyond the proposed licensing fees, what specific GGR\/NGR taxation rates and ancillary levies are being considered for Sri Lanka's gaming revenue model, and how will these be structured to achieve the \"robust\" comparison to Singapore?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Plan?","query":"Given the historical lack of oversight and outstanding tax liabilities, what specific enforcement mechanisms and governance frameworks will the new Gambling Regulatory Authority implement to ensure compliance and prevent future revenue leakage?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16334],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777013268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013268","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=777013268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777013275,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013268\/revisions\/777013275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777013268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777013268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777013268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}