The casino at City of Dreams Sri Lanka, in that country’s capital Colombo, is “on track to open in the third quarter of 2025”, says gaming entrepreneur Lawrence Ho Yau Lung.
His comments were in the annual report filed on Monday, for Hong Kong-listed Melco International Development Ltd, of which Mr Ho (pictured in a file photo) is chairman and chief executive.
Melco International is parent to Nasdaq-listed Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, which will manage a land-based casino and hotel at City of Dreams Sri Lanka. Melco Resorts also manages City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines, and controls casino properties in Macau and in the Republic of Cyprus.
Melco Resorts is an investor in the casino portion of the US$1-billion Sri Lanka resort complex, which was created by John Keells Holdings Plc. Melco Resorts had previously mentioned it would spend US$125 million as its contribution toward the casino resort.
“Beyond Macau, we look forward to the opening of casino at City of Dreams Sri Lanka, which is on track to open in the third quarter of 2025,” said Mr Ho in Melco International’s 2024 annual report.
He added: “This transformative project represents a capital-light investment with an attractive return profile, allowing us to extend the City of Dreams brand and broaden our customer base.”
Melco International’s filing noted that the the “fit-out” of the casino at City of Dreams Sri Lanka, was “progressing well”. The complex is described as that country’s first integrated resort.
The Sri Lanka government granted a casino licence to Bluehaven Services (Private) Ltd – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Melco Resorts – to operate casino business at City of Dreams Sri Lanka for a term of 20 years with effect from April 1, 2024.
Under the Sri Lanka Betting and Gaming Levy Act, the Melco Resorts unit Bluehaven is subject to an annual levy of LKR500 million (US$1.67 million) from the fiscal year in which it begins carrying on casino gaming business, the Melco International annual report noted.
Bluehaven is also subject to a “monthly gross collection levy” of 15 percent of total collections from the casino gaming business. Such levy would be exempted if monthly gross collections are below LKR1 million.
Under an agreement signed with Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment in late June last year – in return for “certain import and labour-related concessions” from the local government – Bluehaven is required to create and operate a “recreation centre including a casino and related activities” in City of Dreams Sri Lanka. involving an investment amount of US$100 million.
Such commitment must be funded by 20-percent equity and 80-percent loan capital as foreign direct investment, the Melco International Development’s annual report mentioned.
As at December-end of last year, the Melco group made equity and loan investments of LKR6.04 billion (US$20.2 million) and US$20 million, respectively, in Bluehaven for development and operation of the Sri Lanka casino, the annual report stated.
