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Why roll the dice on foreign casino investors when locals are ready to play?
- Industry experts say casino operations bring little new technology or skill transfer — raising doubts about long-term local benefit
- Why was a foreign based gaming giant awarded the contract when local expertise was available and even proposed for years
- Sri Lanka is globally known for nature, heritage and wellness — not gaming. Competing with giants like Macau or Singapore may be unrealistic
- Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan pulls out of ‘City of Dreams’ opening
The speculated opening of a foreign owned casino centre in Colombo’s ‘City of Dreams’ has raised serious questions as to why a foreign based gaming giant was awarded the contract when local expertise was available for years.
The Daily Mirror learns that Hong Kong based Melco Resorts and Entertainment will open up a massive casino in the City of Dreams in early August. It was expected to be launched by Bollywood mega star Shah Rukh Khan. With the audience only restricted to ‘invitees only’, the event was much hyped up with the expected appearance of Mr. Khan. However, in a surprising statement released yesterday by the local PR agency in charge of the publicity, it was announced that the Bollywood star had cancelled his scheduled visit to Sri Lanka due to ‘unforeseen personal reasons beyond his control’.
However, the launch of the City of Dreams is going ahead as scheduled.
Now the question is this. With two local gaming expertise in the country along with proposals for similar projects for years to open up an international standard casino in Colombo, on what basis has a foreign casino company been granted approval to operate in Sri Lanka?
A similar debate erupted during the 2010-2015 period of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for granting approval for Waterfront Properties, Lake Leisure Holdings, and Queensbury Leisure Limited – the investments involving local partners – for casino business. A hue and cry was made about the whole project by the then opposition UNP and even the JVP which even went to the extent of accusing the then Mahinda Rajapaksa government of working against the cultural ethos of the country by promoting grand scale gaming.
Once the then government was voted out in 2015 and the Yahapalana government formed, the casino projects - Waterfront Properties, Lake Leisure Holdings, and Queensbury Leisure Limited - mooted as parts of mixed development projects under the Strategic Development Act were scrapped through a Cabinet decision.
It can be construed as a fulfilment of an election promise by the then government led by Maithripala Sirisena as the President and Ranil Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. The country paid a price for that since it was an investment involving locals with massive revenue expected to be generated for the country’s economy and with money staying within the country.
Now years later, surprisingly a foreign based entertainment company has been granted the license to operate a casino in Sri Lanka with serious queries as to why the local proposals, which were lying on the government tables for years, were ignored. With politicians pledging to build up local businesses, then why was such a decision taken to invite a foreign based firm when local moguls had put forward similar requests with them willing to operate it within international standards and also pull in gamblers from neighboring countries.
A serious question also now arises. With casinos rolling in millions of dollars, will the revenue generated by this foreign entertainment company be re-invested here instead of repatriating it back to its homeland?
Gaming is no doubt a part of tourism. Casino centres operate in Sri Lanka in a niche context. Today, Sri Lanka has become one of the most tourist attractive countries in the world not as a gaming destination but as a hotspot of magnificent beaches, verdant nature teeming with wildlife including freely roaming, majestic elephants and ancient heritage sites that speaks of the country’s glorious past.
Tourism is attached with gaming and nightlife too. But, Sri Lanka should make use of its areas of strength in the industry instead of competing with other countries in aspects where it is weak in relative terms. In gaming, it is difficult for Sri Lanka to compete with Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, seen as luxurious gaming destinations.
And even if Sri Lanka wants to compete in gaming, should it not be considering local expertise first rather than inviting foreign based companies?
Likewise, in the attraction of tourism sector investments into the country, the government must be careful to allow businessmen who bring new technology, capital and expertise with the end goal of generating employment for locals.
An industry expert said that there is nothing like that flowing into the country when a casino centre is set up.
There is no new technology. Technology is the same. When there are foreigners owning casino centres, profit is repatriated. It is always better to have locals to invest in the business if there are people with expertise, as viewed by experts in the field.
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