It has been proposed to establish the Gambling Regularisation Authority to act as an independent solo monitoring Authority with a broad and holistic subject arena in regard to monitoring activities related to the gambling sports industry in Sri Lanka including offshore gambling sports activities in ships and the Colombo Port City as well as online gambling sports. In par with the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers at their meeting held on 24 February to prepare a draft Bill in relation to that, a draft Bill has been prepared, to which the clearance of the Attorney General has been granted. Accordingly, the Cabinet granted approval to the proposal furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to publish the draft Bill of the Gambling Sports Regularisation Act in the Government Gazette notification and to subsequently submit the same to the Parliament for its concurrence.

The Government intends to acquire an economic growth of more than 5% from the gross domestic product (GDP) within the mid-term framework. The Government’s attention has been drawn to investment-friendly policy planning, infrastructure facilities development and export diversification, in order to accomplish sustainable development and economic stability. However, since private investments have been at a low rate during the previous decades and Government investments are 4%-5% of the GDP, it is recognised as vital to encourage private investments for realising the expected economic growth. Accordingly, the Cabinet approved the resolution furnished by the President to supervise the policy discussions on economic development, aiming at the performance and national economic objectives as well as to establish the special committee appointed by the Cabinet on Economic Development to facilitate that.