The State Minister came out with this information in response to a question raised by MP Venerable Athureliye Rathana Thera on the move by the government to allow new casinos in Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna.

“We have brought in new laws pertaining to casinos and therefore a sum of Rs. 500 million will be charged when granting a license for a period of five years.

We also intend to increase entrance fees for casinos. Our intention is to discourage locals from going into casinos,” the State Minister said.

“We have to introduce casinos to attract tourists so that it would be possible to increase state revenue. If not, we will have to depend on taxes charged from locals to increase state revenue,” he added.