Sri Lanka’s effort to shut down illegal betting online has had a limited practical effect. Weeks after the telecoms regulator blocked 24 websites, testing found that many of the same gambling domains were still reachable from Sri Lankan internet connections, while several operators were reappearing under new domain resolutions.
As reported in July, the supplementary rules needed to make the new gambling framework operational were already late. The Gambling Regulatory Authority still has not promulgated regulations, and the deadline has reportedly been pushed back again, now to December. Without that step, there is still no mechanism to apply for or obtain an online gambling licence, even though the law says licensed, regulated online gambling is legal.
In early August, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka blocked access within the country to 24 websites it said were unlawfully providing online gambling and betting services without the required licence. The regulator instructed telecom providers to cut access immediately. Newswire reported that the move followed a request from the Gambling Regulatory Authority and listed domains including 1xbet.com, 22bet.com, dafabet.com, bc.game and stake.com.
The Sunday Times said the impact in the market was slight. Sanjana Hattotuwa found that Sri Lanka Cricket allowed betting-related brands to advertise openly during the second India-Sri Lanka Test at the SSC even as the underlying operator 1xBet was blocked. He described 1xBAT as a surrogate brand for 1xBet.
Between mid-August and 3 September, Hattotuwa’s testing found that many blocked gambling domains remained accessible through Sri Lankan connections. The number of blocked addresses reachable through SLT Fibre rose from 18 to 44, while those accessible through Dialog 5G increased from 21 to 28.
The regulator’s own position remains that online operators need formal permission. GRA chairman Wasantha Nawaratne Bandara said action was not taken against the online operations of land-based casinos because the companies were already registered, but he said they would need a separate licence once regulations are in place. He also said there was no licensing regime for online gambling at the moment.
That has left the country in a legal gap. Researcher Sudaraka Ariyaratne said operator licences were never meant for online gambling and questioned how authorities could ban operators for lacking licences when the government had not yet created a way to obtain one. Inspector General Priyantha Weerasooriya has said police are using the Cybercrimes Act where possible because they cannot prosecute these offences directly under the gambling law until the regulator introduces the necessary regulations.
