{"id":777033227,"date":"2025-10-16T09:16:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T12:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777033227"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:08:16","slug":"sri-lanka-cites-progress-on-new-gambling-regulator-as-report-shows-rise-in-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-cites-progress-on-new-gambling-regulator-as-report-shows-rise-in-online-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka cites progress on creation of new gambling regulator as report shows rise in online gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The government still aims to launch the Gambling Regulatory Authority in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka.- The government of Sri Lanka says it&#8217;s still committed to launching a dedicated gambling regulator. It says the long-delayed <strong>Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA)<\/strong> will be up and running by <strong>June 30, 2026<\/strong>, unifying oversight of both physical and digital gambling operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Licensing and tax structures will be introduced for online casino gambling, and implement mandatory age and identity verification systems will be introduced to try to prevent underage play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials from the Finance Ministry and the Inland Revenue Department confirmed that <strong>nominations are underway<\/strong> for a seven-member board and that a CEO will soon be appointed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Findings presented this week to the <strong>Committee on Public Finance<\/strong> (CoPF) revealed that only about one-third of gambling in Sri Lanka occurs within <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-hopes-casinos-can-help-boost-tourism-revenue-to-10-of-gdp\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/sri-lanka-hopes-casinos-can-help-boost-tourism-revenue-to-10-of-gdp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the country\u2019s licensed land-based casinos<\/a>, while the rest takes place on <strong>foreign online platforms that fall outside existing regulations<\/strong>. Experts estimate that over 300,000 Sri Lankans regularly participate in online betting through offshore apps and websites, wagering more than LKR60bn (US$197m) annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a massive regulatory blind spot,\u201d warned opposition MP Dr. <strong>Harsha de Silva<\/strong>, who chairs the CoPF. \u201cWithout an independent mechanism, we risk not only losing tax income but also enabling financial crimes linked to gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Effective regulation is seen as essential for Sri Lanka to comply with <strong>Financial Action Task Force (FATF)<\/strong> requirements related to anti\u2013money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF).<\/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\/10\/3e6f1c2b-5c58-44a3-8a55-9466d43ea563-300x200.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\/bangladesh-warns-espncricinfo-over-illegal-gambling-ads'>Bangladesh warns ESPNcricinfo over illegal gambling ads<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government still aims to launch the Gambling Regulatory Authority in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777033230,"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 is committed to launching its Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) by June 30, 2026, to unify oversight for both physical and digital gambling. This initiative will introduce licensing, taxation, and mandatory age\/identity verification for online casinos, addressing a significant regulatory blind spot where offshore platforms currently dominate. The move is critical for revenue generation, combating financial crimes, and ensuring compliance with FATF anti-money laundering requirements.","focusai_entities":"Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), Finance Ministry, Inland Revenue Department, Committee on Public Finance (CoPF), Dr. Harsha de Silva, Financial Action Task Force (FATF)","focusai_location":"Sri Lanka","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GRA Board Composition?","query":"What specific industry expertise and regulatory backgrounds are being prioritized for the seven-member board of the Gambling Regulatory Authority, and how will this influence its operational mandate?"},{"label":"Offshore Market Impact?","query":"What specific enforcement mechanisms will the GRA implement to effectively curb the dominance of offshore online gambling platforms and redirect the LKR60bn annual wagering into the regulated domestic market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,156,16334],"tags":[29,4138,337,24799],"class_list":["post-777033227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-regulation-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-casino","tag-online-gambling","tag-regulation","tag-sri-lanka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033227","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=777033227"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777033247,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033227\/revisions\/777033247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777033230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777033227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777033227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777033227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}