{"id":777023980,"date":"2025-03-12T09:03:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T12:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023980"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:55:28","slug":"sri-lanka-urged-to-expedite-creation-of-casino-regulatory-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-urged-to-expedite-creation-of-casino-regulatory-authority","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka urged to expedite creation of casino regulatory authority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Committee on Public Finance says a large number of online casinos operate without any taxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka.- The Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) <\/strong>has renewed its call for the establishment of a Casino Regulatory Authority<\/strong>. During a meeting in Parliament, Harsha de Silva<\/strong>, chairman of the CoPF, said that while taxes are imposed on land-based casinos, online gambling operates without any taxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

de Silva stressed the need to bring online casinos under a regulatory framework and noted that the committee had been working for years to establish a Casino Regulatory Authority. It was decided that the Attorney General\u2019s Department would be given the task of fast-tracking legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans for a bill to create the regulator were approved in February. Meanwhile, the government proposed to raise the\u00a0turnover tax on gaming from 15 per cent to 18 per cent in its 2025 budget plan. Entrance fees would rise from US$50 to US$100.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The
A meeting of the Committee on Public Finance chaired by Harsha de Silva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

City of Dreams Sri Lanka<\/strong>, in the capital Colombo, opened its\u00a0Phase I in October<\/a> with\u00a0687 rooms<\/strong> alongside restaurants and entertainment venues. Phase II, with a 113-key Nuwa Hotel and gaming operations, is expected to open in the third quarter of 2025. The casino will be operated by Melco Resorts & Entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Committee on Public Finance says a large number of online casinos operate without any taxation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21500,"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 Lankan Committee on Public Finance is advocating for the establishment of a Casino Regulatory Authority to bring currently untaxed online gambling operations under a formal regulatory framework. Concurrently, the government plans to increase the turnover tax on land-based gaming from 15% to 18% and double entrance fees in its 2025 budget. This regulatory push coincides with Melco Resorts & Entertainment's development of City of Dreams Sri Lanka, with gaming operations slated for Q3 2025.","focusai_entities":"Committee on Public Finance (CoPF), Harsha de Silva, Attorney General\u2019s Department, City of Dreams Sri Lanka, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Nuwa Hotel","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Colombo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Online Licensing Framework?","query":"What specific B2B\/B2C licensing categories are anticipated under the proposed Casino Regulatory Authority, and how will they differentiate from existing land-based frameworks in Sri Lanka?"},{"label":"Legislation Enactment Timeline?","query":"What is the projected timeline for the Attorney General\u2019s Department to finalize and enact the online gambling legislation, and what are the key legislative hurdles or potential delays?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,154,16334],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777023980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023980","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=777023980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023996,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023980\/revisions\/777023996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777023980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}