Sri Lanka rolls the dice on casinos to power post-crisis tourism boom

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COLOMBO - Tourists have long flocked to Sri Lanka for its pristine beaches, wildlife safaris and ancient Buddhist sites. Now, its first Marxist president is betting on casinos to attract high-rollers from India and China and usher in the next wave of foreign inflows.

The success of the casino strategy is crucial for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who completes one year in office next month and has vowed to improve the lives of ordinary Sri Lankans after the devastating economic collapse of 2022 and 2023.

Sri Lanka had a handful of small casinos but earlier this month, Dissanayake inaugurated a $1.2 billion City of Dreams casino complex in Colombo, a joint venture between John Keells Holdings and Macau-based Melco Resorts amp; Entertainment.

The launch of South Asias first integrated resort was headlined by Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan, who danced to hit Hindi songs in front of a packed house.

Dissanayake has also got legislation passed in parliament to regulate gambling including in casinos, reflecting the importance he is placing on the industry.

The push is part of Sri Lankas aim to raise tourist arrivals by 50% to 3 million this year, potentially lifting revenues from the industry to $5 billion from $3.7 billion last year, the deputy tourism minister, Ruwan Ranasinghe, told Reuters.

Tourism plays a very significant role for us to get out of these economic issues that we have, he said.

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.

Tourism