Sri Lanka formalises casinos to gain tax

The Sri Lankan government has approved a plan to provide official licences to the four casinos in the country – in order to facilitate the collection of taxes.

Local newspapers report that the casinos owe a total of $7.4m in taxes but it has been difficult to collect the money in the absence of official status.

The government passed gambling taxation regulations some years ago, but the laws failed to cover the formal issuing of licences. The new proposal also seeks to increase the levy on casinos from the present $550,000 per licence to $1.4m.