“Proposed ‘Gambling Regulatory Authority’ law inadequate”

The Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) has said the proposed Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) law will not be adequate to meet the challenging task of overseeing the thriving casino industry.In spite of discussions held since Nov., 2022 when the CoPF formally called for the establishment of dedicated GRA, the relevant stakeholders hadn’t been able to reach a consensus, political sources told The Island.

When The Island sought a clarification from CoPF Chairman and SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday (10), he emphasised that the parliamentary committee on several occasions had urged the previous government (Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa arrangement) and the incumbent National People’s Power (NPP) government to secure expert advice from jurisdictions that run well-regulated casinos, like Singapore, they weren’t interested.

The CoPF Chairman said that the issue at hand had attracted fresh attention in the wake of the opening of the country’s first integrated resort City of Dreams, an 800-room hotel that housed what the operators called a world class gaming area with license to operate for 20 years.

John Keells Holdings (JKH) has teamed up with Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (“Melco”) developer, owner and operator of integrated resort facilities in Asia and Europe. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake opened the facility on August 2 that received approval from the Finance Ministry during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure as the President and Finance Minister. NPP and JVP leader Dissanayake currently holds the Finance portfolio.

The CoPF relentlessly pushed the Finance Ministry to finance the process by September 2023 and then by March 31, 2024.

The Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government granted approval for the JKH-Melco project though CoPF on Nov 24, 2022 declared that no new licenses would be issued until the formulation of GRA. Sources said that this announcement was made when CoPF considered two extraordinary gazette notifications on casinos but weren’t approved.

Sources alleged that the Finance Ministry pathetically failed to adhere to decisions taken by CoPF to ensure the speedy finalisation of the process to ensure the setting up of GRA in line with international standards. However, for want of the required commitment of the Finance Ministry, the CoPF couldn’t achieve what it wanted to.

CoPF has expressed serious concern over the issuance of what it called an unduly long 20-year casinos license to JKH-Melco operation.

At the moment, the lucrative casino industry here operates under an outdated and fragmented legal and

regulatory framework, primarily governed by: (i) Casino Business (Regulation) Act, No. 17 of 2010 and (ii) Betting and Gaming Levy Act, No. 40 of 1988.

Regardless of the enactment of the 2010 legislation, the corresponding regulations for licensing and designated operational areas hadn’t been issued for over a decade, those who represented CoPF have pointed out.

Bally’s, Bellagio, Casino Marina, and Stardust currently operate under provisional registrations, all of whom registered within a five-month window in 2013, sources said. According to sources regardless of promises to increase revenue by taxing casinos, Sri Lanka lacked the required tools to monitor the industry’s financial operations, including online platforms.

According to the CoPF and Finance Ministry, there had been undue delays on the part of the Attorney General in examining the GRA Bill. Sources pointed out that the AG’s Department had taken as many as 15 months to review the Bill and all stakeholders needed to discuss ways and means of avoiding such delays in finalising critically important Bills.

by Shamindra Ferdinando ✍️