In what could be a landmark moment for the development of the framework in Sri Lanka, a Government committee has taken issue with the inclusion of casino junkets within the country’s proposed casino regulatory regime.

Last week, a draft bill to establish a Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) was published under the directive of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

According to Sri Lanka’s Cabinet Office, the Gambling Regulatory Authority would function “as the sole independent regulator with a broad and overarching scope on operations in the gambling industry”. This would include online gaming and offshore gambling activities on ships and in the Colombo Port City.

However, as reported by The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka’s Committee of Public Finance has questioned whether the GRA’s revenue mechanism would include casino junkets.

A spokesperson of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) stated: “The inland revenue mechanism, casinos are already under their revenue collection structures, but of course going forward, whether the junket operators will be included in that revenue mechanism is yet to be seen.”

Casino junkets were not specifically mentioned under the terms of the GRA bill, which suggests that loopholes may exist that the junkets could seek to exploit.

The representative did note, however, that the establishment of the GRA would act as “a way to monitor this operation” as there is no such mechanism under the current Casino Business Act.

The FIU official also called for a ban on casino operations on cruise ships docking in Sri Lanka’s port city of Colombo.

“When the cruise ships arrive in Sri Lanka, if they have casinos, [they] should be prevented from operating within the territorial limits of [Sri Lanka], otherwise local casinos will not have a necessity to operate,” said the representative. 

“So that’s one of the other areas which is right now challenging and we hope to tackle that because that’s one of the key Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism loopholes that we have observed.’’

Vessels that are within 12 nautical miles of land must operate within the laws of that country.

The proposed GRA bill must now gain approval from the 225 members of Sri Lanka’s parliament, and as President Dissanayake’s National People Power (NPP) holds 159 seats, it appears likely that the decision will fall in favour of the gambling reform.