{"id":777025628,"date":"2025-04-23T04:39:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T07:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777025628"},"modified":"2026-04-21T23:38:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:38:32","slug":"sri-lankas-cabinet-approves-bill-to-set-up-gambling-regulatory-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lankas-cabinet-approves-bill-to-set-up-gambling-regulatory-authority","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s cabinet approves bill to create Gambling Regularisation Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The agency will regulate online gaming as well as floating, offshore and land-based casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka.- The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft bill to create the Gambling Regularisation Authority<\/strong>. This new entity will oversee online gambling, ship-based and offshore casinos in Colombo Port City, as well as land-based casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gambling Sports Regularisation Act still needs approval from the country\u2019s parliament, according to a statement from the Department of Government Information. The bill was proposed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the minister of finance, planning, and economic development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Sri Lanka’s casinos follow certain regulations for licensing and entrance fees, but there isn’t a specific act of parliament governing them. In its 2025 budget plan<\/a>, the government proposed to raise the turnover tax on gaming from 15 per cent to 18 per cent and entrance fees from US$50 to US$100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City of Dreams Sri Lanka<\/strong>, in Colombo, opened its Phase I in October<\/a> with 687 rooms<\/strong>, restaurants and entertainment venues, including ballrooms and event and conference facilities. Phase II, with a 113-key Nuwa Hotel and gaming operations, is expected to open in the third quarter of this year. The casino will be operated by Melco Resorts & Entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombo Port City is a new area built by reclaiming land on the western edge of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. The main developer is China Harbour Engineering Co, which invested US$1.4bn. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"City
City of Dreams Sri Lanka.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The agency will regulate online gaming as well as floating, offshore and land-based casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777027991,"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 Cabinet has approved a draft bill to establish a Gambling Regularisation Authority, formalizing oversight for online, offshore, and land-based casinos under a new Gambling Sports Regularisation Act. This regulatory framework coincides with proposed increases in gaming turnover tax and entrance fees, and the imminent opening of gaming operations at City of Dreams Sri Lanka by Melco Resorts & Entertainment in Colombo Port City.","focusai_entities":"Gambling Regularisation Authority, Cabinet of Ministers, Department of Government Information, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, City of Dreams Sri Lanka, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, China Harbour Engineering Co","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Colombo, Colombo Port City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact Analysis","query":"What specific provisions within the Gambling Sports Regularisation Act will define B2B and B2C licensing requirements, and how might these impact the operational timelines for new market entrants?"},{"label":"Financial Projections","query":"How will the proposed increase in turnover tax from 15% to 18% and the doubling of entrance fees affect the projected Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) for integrated resorts like City of Dreams Sri Lanka?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,156,158,16334],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-777025628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-asia-news","tag-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777025628","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=777025628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777025628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777025673,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777025628\/revisions\/777025673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777027991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777025628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777025628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777025628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}