Multi-million-dollar casinos planned for Colombo have boosted Sri Lanka’s ambitious hopes of becoming Asia’s new gambling hotspot, however the projects still face political and religious opposition.

Sri Lanka legalised gambling in November 2010, together with the aim of at some point luring cashed-up tourists towards the island nation and boosting an economy battered by decades of ethnic war.

The government granted approval to Sri Lanka’s John Keells group final week, for any $850-million “mixed development”, a euphemism for an entertainment hub that contains gambling.

The green light was also given final month to the neighborhood companion of Australian billionaire and gaming tycoon James Packer, for a equivalent deal to construct a $350 million lakeside resort inside the heart of Colombo. Each investments have been given a generous 10-year tax vacation.

“Big names coming to Sri Lanka for mixed developments is really a massive enhance to the (tourism) market,” stated Chandra Mohotti, chairman of the state-run Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management.

John Keells, the island’s biggest diversified group with interests in hotels, has not announced specifics but industry officials say it will include a casino having a yet-to-be named foreign partner.

Packer’s Crown Group and John Keells are betting on Sri Lanka’s post-war financial development and increasing tourist numbers.

Government officials have stressed that each projects, expected to start prior to the finish of this year, will develop a huge number of jobs and attract higher rollers.

However the main opposition party has baulked at the projects, not on moral grounds, but because of the generous tax breaks gifted to developers.

“What we are saying is the fact that if the nation is always to advantage, they have to be taxed and regulated,” United National Party (UNP) lawmaker Harsha de Silva said. “We is not going to jump up and down saying we oppose casinos.”

The UNP is pushing for any sin-tax on casino developments in line with all the heavy duties slapped on the alcohol and tobacco industries.

Investment promotion minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena defended the government’s efforts to encourage “mixed-developments” which includes using the 10-year tax vacation.

“If we do not provide generous tax incentives, these investors will go to some other country,” Yapa said last week.

Modest, low-key casinos have been tolerated in conservative mostly Buddhist Sri Lanka even before gambling was legalised in 2010, by exploiting numerous legal loopholes.

The government has been trying to placate the island’s influential monks by saying all future big-name casinos might be constructed in 1 designated zone in Colombo, and open only to foreigners.

Buddhist monk Athuraliye Rathana, a lawmaker and senior leader in the National Heritage celebration, warned the government that these and other information set out within the 2010 gambling legislation must be strictly followed.

“We oppose gambling, nevertheless it is not practical to eradicate it absolutely. The government must enforce the Gambling Act (of 2010) and limit casinos to designated regions instead of give them a no cost run,” he told AFP.

“The government has at least mentioned there will likely be a separate location for gambling. So let us see how they implement it,” another Buddhist monk, Galagodaatte Gnanasara, secretary with the radical Bodu Bala Sena (BBS, or Buddhist Force) mentioned.

The government is still thrashing out particulars of a regulatory framework for casinos, 3 years immediately after legalising gambling. A senior minister told parliament in the time that Sri Lanka hoped to replicate Singapore’s achievement in attracting higher rollers to a well-regulated industry.

Mohotti said luring Crown as well as other brands was essential to further developing tourism, which can be enjoying steady development just after hitting rock bottom through the war between 1972 and 2009.

“Four leading brands — Le Meridien, Marriott, InterContinental and Oberoi — left Sri Lanka during the war,” added Mohotti, who is also a senior vice president of Sri Lanka’s 149-year-old Galle Face Hotel.

Tourism earnings is set to rise from 1.0 % of gross domestic solution to five.0 percent within the subsequent three years, as outlined by government forecasts, around the back of a continuing hike in visitor numbers.

The government has set a target of doubling annual visitor numbers to two.5 million by 2016, including by encouraging distinctive types of tourism.

Sri Lanka attracted a record a single million visitors in 2012 with involving 1.2 and 1.three million anticipated this year, the government says.

Big-name casinos in Sri Lanka could tap a massive pool of potential punters from neighbouring India, exactly where most forms of gambling are banned, as outlined by a current analysis in the everyday FT economic newspaper.

“Sri Lanka emerging as a gaming centre could draw more tourists from India along with the Middle East,” the report said.

Nevertheless, independent financial analyst Channa Amaratunga mentioned it was complicated to forecast the economic gains offered the lack of transparency inside the government’s gaming plans so far.

“In the alcohol and tobacco industries, we’ve a great idea of just how much is produced, what the sales are and more importantly what the earnings are, but not in gaming,” Amaratunga said.