{"id":777031790,"date":"2025-09-17T11:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777031790"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:05:00","slug":"sri-lanka-aims-to-raise-betting-tax-and-double-casino-entry-fee-for-locals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-aims-to-raise-betting-tax-and-double-casino-entry-fee-for-locals","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka aims to raise betting tax and double casino entry fee for locals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Amendments to the Betting and Gaming Levy Act will be sent to parliament for approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka.- The cabinet has approved a 2025 budget measure to increase Sri Lanka&#8217;s betting and gaming tax by three percentage points to 18 per cent and to double the casino entry fee for residents from US$50 to US$100. The levy on turnover applies to monthly gross collection amounts exceeding LKR1m (US$3,315). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The changes are included in a draft bill amending the Betting and Gaming Levy Act, which will be published in the government\u2019s gazette before being sent to parliament for approval. The Attorney General has already cleared the draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The measures follow <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/city-of-dreams-sri-lanka-opens\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/city-of-dreams-sri-lanka-opens\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the launch of City of Dreams Sri Lanka<\/a> in Colombo. The country\u2019s first international-standard integrated resort with a casino is operated by Melco Resorts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka passed legislation in August to establish a <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-approves-gambling-regulatory-authority-bill\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-approves-gambling-regulatory-authority-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gambling Regulatory Authority<\/a>. Authorities have linked the fiscal changes to plans to strengthen oversight and increase state revenues from the gaming industry, which plays a growing role in the country\u2019s tourism ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/05\/chathura-anuradha-subasinghe-bnANxRbyfEY-unsplash-scaled-e1727278541854-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-approves-gambling-regulatory-authority-bill'>Sri Lankan parliament approves Gambling Regulatory Authority Bill<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amendments to the Betting and Gaming Levy Act will be sent to parliament for approval.<\/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":"Sri Lanka's cabinet has approved a 2025 budget measure to increase the betting and gaming tax by three percentage points to 18% and double the casino entry fee for residents. These amendments to the Betting and Gaming Levy Act aim to bolster state revenues and strengthen regulatory oversight, following the recent launch of City of Dreams Sri Lanka and the establishment of a Gambling Regulatory Authority.","focusai_entities":"Melco Resorts, Attorney General, Parliament, Cabinet, Gambling Regulatory Authority","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka, Colombo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Operator Profitability Impact?","query":"What is the estimated impact of the 3-percentage-point increase in betting and gaming tax and the doubled resident casino entry fee on the Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) and EBITDA margins for licensed operators in Sri Lanka, particularly Melco Resorts?"},{"label":"Regulatory Revenue Projections?","query":"How do these fiscal adjustments align with the newly established Gambling Regulatory Authority's mandate for market oversight and state revenue generation, and what are the long-term projections for government take from the gaming vertical?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,154,158,16334],"tags":[225,24799],"class_list":["post-777031790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-asia-news","tag-legislation","tag-sri-lanka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031790","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=777031790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777031812,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031790\/revisions\/777031812"}],"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=777031790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777031790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777031790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}