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Cash-strapped Sri Lanka has formally approved the importing of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) for casino operations, even as the body responsible expressed concern over the legalisation of junkets and online gambling.
The parliamentary Committee on Public Finance on Tuesday (June 24) directed the government to form a new monitoring process for importing “casino machines”, the Daily Mirror reported.
Committee chairman Harsha de Silva, a reformist economist and former banker who represents a constituency in the capital, Colombo, told reporters that the government approached the committee to end various import restrictions applied over the years of economic turmoil.
“The government came to the Committee to remove import restrictions imposed during the crisis,” he said.
“I realised that casino equipment was also in that list. So with the concurrence of the committee, I directed them to create a special mechanism to monitor every casino machine to be imported.”
Committee member Ravi Karunanayake, a former finance and foreign affairs minister, told reporters that the committee “looked into how [the government’s request] could help earn revenue.
“Therefore, we have approved it,” he said.
Karunanayake added that the committee did not consider “harmful effects” of any liberalisation, instead focusing only on “how casinos could help the government earn revenue”.
Removal of the restriction on EGMs was previously flagged in tandem with the government’s moves to legislate a dedicated gambling regulator for land-based and online gambling.
Mention of “gambling machines” in draft legislation gazetted in May is brief and limited to broad regulatory powers wielded by the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), but without mention of import restrictions.
But the reformist and pragmatic momentum of the current finance committee may yet fall short of the government’s wider enthusiasm for gambling liberalisation and tax revenue.
De Silva expressed scepticism toward the scope and coherence of the draft legislation creating the GRA, complaining that the laconic bill he has supported thus far has “so many shortcomings”.
“The law is only to establish the regulator, but regulations must be legislated to manage the operations of the casinos,” he said.
“In Singapore, there are two laws. One is [for] the regulator and the other is to control the casino operations.
“My worry is that the government is going to legislate junket operations, but with no regulations to monitor.”
De Silva also criticised the lack of detail on how digital gambling will be regulated.
“The other major issue is with online casinos with no regulation and no tax,” de Silva said.
In any case, the lifting of restrictions on EGMs will boost the agenda of Macau, Philippines, and Cyprus casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment, whose City of Dreams Sri Lanka casino will open in August in a $1bn integrated resort complex controlled by local real estate colossus John Keells Holdings.
The Melco Resorts casino will be the first foreign venture to seriously challenge Colombo’s clutch of casinos that have operated in a regulatory fog for decades.
