Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2013 38 FEATURES forces committed atrocities in suppressing the Tamil revolt. He vehemently denies allegations that human rights abuses continue against the Tamils, who remain under heavy military occupation. In protest last month, the leaders of Canada and India boycotted a meeting of Commonwealth nations convened in the capital of Colombo. None of this bodes well for government initiatives aimed at doubling foreign tourist arrivals to 2.5 million by 2016, plans in which visitors from India, the Tamils’ ethnic and spiritual home, figure prominently. Indians have returned toSri Lanka in sizablenumbers only since the civil war ended, but they are now the island’s primary source of visitors, and it’s with one eye on the subcontinent’s hugely underserved gambling market, the other on the current boom in travel out of China, that the Rajapaksas hope to attract $3 billion in tourism-related foreign direct investment over the next three years. This would elevate tourism to the country’s largest source of foreign-exchange earnings. Crown’s plans call for a 400-room luxury resort in the capital of Colombo in partnership with Ravi Wijeratne, owner of Rank Holdings, the biggest operator in the existing casino market and a boyhood friend of the president’s. John Keells, the country’s largest public company, is planning an 800-room resort in the capital priced at $650 million. Both will feature an array of dining, shopping, entertainment and leisure attractions and significant conference and meeting space. It’s their first-class hotel rooms themarket needs more than anything to reach the visitor goals the government has set with the big-spending overseas visitors it wants. With its endorsement both projects have secured sites along popular Beira Lake in the heart of the city’s business and tourism district. In his eight years in office President Mahinda Rajapaksa has constructed around himself and his family an all but unassailable and swiftly moving policy machine. The champion of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Sinhalese-Buddhist majority, he is credited with orchestrating the military defeat of a Hindu Tamil insurgency that raged in the north of the island for the better part of a generation. The government wants to double foreign tourist arrivals to 2.5 million by 2016, a plan in which visitors from India figure prominently. Indians have returned to Sri Lanka in sizable numbers only since the civil war ended, but they are now the island’s primary source of visitors. Socially speaking, though, it’s all pretty radical. The handful of small casinos of the type run by Rank have operated for years under the radar of the powerful Buddhist clergy as “recreation clubs” catering to the tourist trade in and around Colombo. Legislation formally recognizing them didn’t exist prior to 2010, and it was Mr Rajapaksa who pushed for it. At the same time, the government has attempted to downplay its support, quietly refraining from actually licensing the casinos or attempting to organize the market within any kind of regulatory framework.