Betting and Gaming Levy Sri Lanka: 2026 Calculator

The Betting and Gaming Levy Act, No. 40 of 1988 charges three separate amounts, and the calculator adds them for one levy year. Nothing here is an estimate: each figure has a section of the Act beside it.

1. The annual levy

Section 2(1) charges a fixed amount set out in the Schedule, which Act No. 11 of 2023 replaced in full. From a year commencing on or after 1 April 2023 it is Rs 500,000,000 for a business of gaming, Rs 5,000,000 for a bookmaker operating through an agent or via internet, Rs 1,000,000 with live telecast facilities and Rs 75,000 without them. Section 3 deems a business carried on in different places by the same person to be a separate business in each place, so the amount is charged once per place rather than once per company. Section 4(1A) splits it into 4 equal instalments due on or before 1 April, 1 July, 1 October and 1 January. A business that starts on or after 1 October of a year pays half the levy for that year, under the proviso to section 2(1), which is the checkbox in the calculator.

2. The levy on gross collection

Section 2(1A) charges a rate on the total recovered from the business each month. Act No. 25 of 2025 closed the 15 per cent band at years ending before 1 January 2026 and inserted a new paragraph (d) at 18 per cent for any year commencing on or after that date. The proviso to the subsection removes the liability where gross collection does not exceed Rs 1,000,000 a month, and because each place is a separate business, the threshold is tested per place. The formula is simply monthly gross collection x rate, with nothing payable at or below the threshold. A business that does pay this levy is not liable to VAT, NBT or SSCL on the same collection, under the first proviso. A business under the threshold gets no such exclusion, so it has to test the VAT registration threshold and the SSCL threshold on their own terms.

3. The casino entrance levy

Section 2(1AA) makes a business of gaming collect a levy from people entering and pay it over with the monthly gross collection levy. Act No. 11 of 2023 narrowed it to a person who is a citizen of Sri Lanka from 1 April 2023, at US$50, and Act No. 25 of 2025 substituted US$100 for that figure. It may be paid in US dollars, an equivalent amount of any other convertible foreign currency, or in rupees. One drafting point the calculator is explicit about: the 18 per cent rate carries its own commencement date in the Act, while the US$100 substitution carries none, so it operates from the date of operation of Act No. 25 of 2025, certified on 17 December 2025. Both figures are shown with their dates rather than collapsed into one date.

4. Penalties, returns and registration

Section 4(3)(c), inserted by Act No. 11 of 2023, charges 10 per cent of a defaulted gross collection or entrance levy, then a further 10 per cent for each further period of 30 days or part of one once 30 days have expired, and caps the total at 50%. A defaulted annual levy instalment is different: section 4(3)(b) charges 33 and one third per cent for each monthly period, capped at 100 per cent. Section 4(3A) lets the Commissioner-General reduce or waive a penalty, so the numbers are the statutory maximum. The quarterly return is due by the 20th of the month after the quarter ends. Section 2A requires registration with the Department of Inland Revenue within one month of the casino licence being issued, or of a bookmaker business starting, with a fine of up to Rs 10,000,000 for carrying on without registering.

Charged once for every place the business is carried on, and paid in four equal instalments.

Source: Schedule to the Betting and Gaming Levy Act, as replaced by Act No. 11 of 2023 section 8.

Levy on gross collection

Casino entrance levy

• Income tax on the operator's profits. The levy sits beside corporate income tax, which the income tax tools handle.
• The licence fee under the Casino Business (Regulations) Act, No. 17 of 2010. A business of gaming must hold that licence before it registers with IRD, but the fee is set under a different Act.
• Tax on a player's winnings. No Sri Lankan provision has been cited for it, so this page does not guess at one.
• Levy years commencing before 1 April 2023. The rate history above names the earlier rates, and the calculator computes the two current bands.

• Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 25 of 2025

  The 18 per cent rate for years commencing on or after 1 January 2026, and the substitution of US$100 for US$50 in the casino entrance levy.

• Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 2023

  The current Schedule of annual levy amounts, the citizens-only entrance levy, the VAT, NBT and SSCL exclusion, the 10 per cent default penalty and the IRD registration duty.

• Betting and Gaming Levy Act, No. 40 of 1988, consolidated to 30.04.2013

  The Rs 1,000,000 a month threshold, the per place rule, the four instalment dates, the quarterly return date and the instalment penalty.

• Inland Revenue Department, Betting and Gaming Levy (B&GL)

  Liable persons, the annual levy amounts and the payment and return dates. Stamped "Last updated: 11-08-2025", so it still prints 15 per cent and US$50: the Acts above override it.

• Casino Business (Regulations) Act, No. 17 of 2010

  The licence a business of gaming must hold before it registers with IRD, under s.2A(1A) of the principal enactment. The licence fee itself is set under that Act and is not computed here.

Every rate, threshold, penalty and date on this page was read off the Acts themselves on 2026-10-16, not copied from a summary. The page is reviewed after each Betting and Gaming Levy amendment Act, and after every national budget.