{"id":777030143,"date":"2025-08-11T07:44:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777030143"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T23:15:22","slug":"sri-lankas-casino-regulator-bill-criticised-as-inadequate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lankas-casino-regulator-bill-criticised-as-inadequate","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka committee raises concerns over casino regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Committee on Public Finance says the Finance Ministry and Attorney General\u2019s Department has failed to meet key deadlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka.- The Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) has raised concerns over delays in establishing a dedicated Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) and has described the current draft Gambling Regulatory Authority bill<\/a> as inadequate. The response comes after the recent opening of the City of Dreams integrated resort<\/a> with a 20-year casino licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CoPF Chairman, Dr. Harsha de Silva, said successive governments, including the previous Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa arrangement and the incumbent National People\u2019s Power (NPP) government, had ignored repeated recommendations to seek guidance from countries with robust regulatory systems, such as Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 20-year license for the new City of Dreams resort, a joint venture between John Keells Holdings (JKH) and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, was approved during Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s presidency despite the CoPF\u2019s call in November 2022<\/a> to halt new approvals until the GRA was in place. The committee said it had urged the Finance Ministry to fund the creation of the regulator by September 2023 and later by March 2024, but both deadlines were missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also criticised the Attorney General\u2019s Department for taking 15 months to review the draft GRA bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s gambling industry continues to operate under the Casino Business (Regulation) Act of 2010 and the Betting and Gaming Levy Act of 1988. More than a decade after the 2010 law was passed, regulations for licensing and operational zones have yet to be issued. Major operators such as Bally\u2019s, Bellagio, Casino Marina and Stardust are still functioning under provisional registrations granted in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Think tank calls for redraft of Sri Lankan gambling bill<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Committee on Public Finance says the Finance Ministry and Attorney General\u2019s Department has failed to meet key deadlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777027001,"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 Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) in Sri Lanka has expressed significant concerns regarding the Finance Ministry's and Attorney General\u2019s Department's failure to establish a dedicated Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) and the inadequacy of the current draft bill. This regulatory vacuum persists despite the recent approval of a 20-year casino license for the City of Dreams integrated resort, highlighting ongoing governance and compliance challenges within the nation's iGaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Committee on Public Finance (CoPF), Finance Ministry, Attorney General\u2019s Department, Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), City of Dreams, John Keells Holdings (JKH), Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, Bally\u2019s, Bellagio, Casino Marina, Stardust, Dr. Harsha de Silva, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa arrangement, National People\u2019s Power (NPP) government","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Singapore","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GRA Bill Impact","query":"What specific deficiencies in the current draft Gambling Regulatory Authority bill have been identified by the CoPF, and how do these impact the proposed governance framework?"},{"label":"Operator License Risk","query":"How does the continued operation of major casino operators under provisional registrations, coupled with the delayed GRA establishment, affect their long-term operational stability and investor confidence?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16334],"tags":[24611,225,24799],"class_list":["post-777030143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-city-of-dreams-sri-lanka","tag-legislation","tag-sri-lanka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777030143","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\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777030143"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777030143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777030171,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777030143\/revisions\/777030171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777027001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777030143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777030143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777030143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}