Sri Lanka's government is moving to liberalise the nation's wagering and video gaming laws with brand-new legislation introduced in parliament today.

Multiple Sri Lankan media outlets report that the government announced the draft costs, named the Gambling Sports Regularization Act, on Monday 21 April.

The main specification of the costs will be the development of a Gaming Regulation Authority entrusted with managing the whole of Sri Lankan gaming, consisting of both retail and online, in addition to overseas business.

"The Gambling Sports Regularisation Act has gotten the clearance of the Chief law officer and the draft Bill will now be released in the Government Gazette before being sent to Parliament for approval," said Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, Minister of Health and Mass Media and Cabinet Spokesperson, as reported by Sri Lankan news outlet Daily FT.

Dr Jayatissa added: "The proposed authority will act as the sole national regulator with a broad mandate, covering locations such as overseas gambling sports on ships and in the Colombo Port City, online betting platforms and overseas gambling establishments."

Change on the horizon in South Asia

Sri Lanka's regulation of betting is, as in its neighbour across the ocean to the north in India, an extremely fragmented landscape. For the most part, gambling is strictly prohibited with a couple of exceptions.

The primary kind of legal video gaming in Sri Lanka is the nationwide lotto, run by the National Lotteries Board and in operation since 1963. The lotto consists of the usual draw games seen across other countries' lottery games, in addition to scratch cards and instantaneous win video games.

Physical casinos are extremely restricted and can only be opened with approval from the government, with the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Colombo being the location of the large majority of the country's casinos. This includes the likes of Bally's Casino, active given that 1995.

Sports wagering is a bit more complex, with the only form of betting allowed being on horse racing, and this is further restricted to just being enabled at on-course bookmakers, such as at the Royal Turf Club, located in the central city of Nuwara Eliya.

Betting on all other sports remains highly illegal, and online betting of any sort - whether on sports, horse racing or at online casinos - is strictly restricted, Like other markets in Asia and more affiled, nevertheless, Sri Lanka has actually been targeted thoroughly by overseas gaming companies, both those licensed in other countries and totally unlawful ones.

The government's relocate to better control Sri Lankan betting with a new main body appears to be part of a broader wind of change seen throughout South and Southeast Asia in current months.

Earlier this month, the government of the Indian state of Karnataka informed media that the state was considering managing wagering and had been engaging with the market on this. This would make the jurisdiction the 4th out of India's 28 states and 8 union territories to launch a controlled betting and video gaming market, joining Goa, Daman, and Sikkim.

Meanwhile, Thailand is likewise progressing with strategies to launch legal casinos in the nation as part of a push to further diversify its currently extensive home entertainment and tourism sector.

However, this legislative proposal has faced hurdles, with domestic opposition pointing out potential social effects, while the escalating tariff trade war in between the US and China has also provided an external obstacle to conquer.

Recalling to Sri Lanka, while the expense primarily worries the creation of a main government betting regulator, it might spell further liberalisations further down the line, possibly even the launch of online wagering as seen in other emerging markets like Brazil.

As with reform advocates in the similarity Brazil, Norway and Finland, to name a few, proponents of Sri Lankan video gaming law reform wish to see greater taxation of the industry, much better gamer security, sports stability protection, and a suppressing of the targeting of Sri Lankans by unlicensed offshore companies, amongst other factors.

Also, modification to wagering of laws is naturally not concrete. The bill still needs to be subjected to analysis from the 225 MPs of Sri Lanka's parliament in the legal capital city of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, a process which - like all leiglsative processes - might see significant modifications and dilutions.