Sri Lanka's Gambling Regulatory Authority now aims to publish regulations for casinos and online gambling by 31 December. The date is a revised target, not a completed step. The authority missed an earlier 30 June deadline, which it attributed to additional vetting in July, and it also missed a 30 November target for becoming fully operational.
The pressure is coming from the money side. Parliament's Committee on Public Finance, chaired by Harsha de Silva, has criticised the delays and warned that without enforceable rules the country could lose substantial tax revenue. Information presented to Parliament in July showed six licensed casino operators, five of them operating, and 37 licensed sports betting and horse-racing operators. Inland Revenue Department officials said no online casino operators were registered with the department at that time. Those two facts point to the gap the committee is worried about: a licensed land-based sector that is paying tax, alongside online activity that the state cannot yet see clearly.
Operators are already paying more. The gross collection levy rose from 15% to 18% for operators with monthly gross collections above LKR 1 million, effective 1 January 2026, and the casino entrance levy for Sri Lankan citizens doubled from $50 to $100. Those increases fall on licensed businesses that have to comply with the rules in full. Players who use unregistered online sites face a different exposure, because the report does not say what protections, if any, apply to them under current arrangements. The 2024 Betting and Gaming Levy collection of $29.5 million shows the scale of what the state already gets from the sector, and it is the baseline the regulator will have to protect.
The regulations were drafted with an international advisory team before they went to a committee and were returned to the authority for finalisation. The report does not include the draft text, so the scope of the licensing fees, online gambling rules and anti-money-laundering controls remains unclear from this coverage. A ministerial order will also list permitted gambling activities.
Even if the authority meets 31 December, the process does not end there. The regulations must go to Parliament for approval within three months of publication. Analysis: the real test is less the date itself than whether the authority can turn a framework passed in 2025 into enforceable obligations for online operators before the revenue gap becomes harder to close. A third missed date would strengthen the committee's case for tighter parliamentary oversight.
This file draws on a public report from Yogonet. Its source type is industry; we label this story reported. Analysis and reported claims are not independent confirmation.
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