The Sri Lankan government has rubber stamped the approval for a $350 million casino resort in the countries capital Colombo, which will be owned by Australian billionaire businessman James Packer. The development is slated to be open by 2015 according to Mr Packer’s company Crown Entertainment which will operate the casino along with their partner Rank Entertainment Ltd.
Under the partnership name of Lake Leisure Holdings the company will now move full steam ahead to ensure the resort is up and running for the target completion date of 2015.
However there is some opposition to the deal when the government announced it had given incentives to Mr Packer in return for the huge investment in the country. A local newspaper has said that the government had offered Lake Leisure Holdings a 10-year income tax holiday along with the casino only being charged 6% tax for another 12 years.
That deal says a local MP in Sri Lanka as crazy with Macau’s tax rate for casinos at 40% with other gambling destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines all charging similar rates.
MP Harsha de Silva said, ““Sri Lanka goes into the record books as the first country in the world that exempts casinos from tax.” He also added that there were irregularities in the casino licensing process.
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