As Sri Lanka seeks to diversify its sources of foreign inflows, the casino sector has emerged as a dark horse in the island’s economic portfolio despite a boom in the local tourism industry.
Sri Lanka rolls the dice
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a self-avowed Marxist, spearheaded the inauguration of a new casino complex in Colombo.
The president also made crucial efforts in helping pass legislation in Parliament that will help regulate casinos on the island, highlighting the sector’s growing importance in the national economic strategy.
The casino complex was a joint venture between John Keells Holdings and Macau-based Melco Resorts Entertainment.
Melco chairman Lawrence Ho said they expect the site to attract visitors from around the world, a win-win situation for Sri Lanka, which is known for its pristine beaches and Buddhist temples.
“It is a total greenfield market. It is similar to how we developed other markets in the past – in Manila, Macau, and also in Cyprus,” Hold told Reuters in an interview.
“I think we are barely scratching the surface in terms of the tourism potential and also the integrated resort gaming potential of this country,” he added.
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Tourism is still king
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s tourism eyes an ambitious plan to raise its revenues to $5 billion from $3.7 billion last year.
Among the top sources of visitors for Sri Lanka are India and China, with Indians representing a quarter of the two million tourist arrivals last year on the island.
Chinese tourists, on the other hand, account for 7 percent of the total visits to Sri Lanka in the same period.
“Tourism plays a very significant role for us to get out of these economic issues that we have,” said Deputy Tourism Minister Ruwan Ranasinghe.
“So these couple of years we are working more on short-term targets and getting traffic, but in the long run, our plan is to go for quality, more sustainable, and high-end tourism, and casinos and gambling will be a segment of that,” he added.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka predicts the island’s economy to grow by 4.5 percent in 2025, higher than the World Bank’s April projection of 3.5 percent.
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Angelica N. Hall 
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