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Packer dismisses idea about casino project
leaves Sri Lanka out!
News sources reveal that Casino kingpin of Australia, James Packer who was on the verge of
establishing a 400 million mixed project in Sri Lanka has now dismissed his idea. The closest reason for this appears to be the statement made by Premier Ranil Wickremasingha in parliament. What he said was that under the new regime it is not possible to grant tax concessions for projects of this nature and if permission was given, licences could not be given to conduct casinos; which led to Packer folding up his idea about his project, news sources say.
establishing a 400 million mixed project in Sri Lanka has now dismissed his idea. The closest reason for this appears to be the statement made by Premier Ranil Wickremasingha in parliament. What he said was that under the new regime it is not possible to grant tax concessions for projects of this nature and if permission was given, licences could not be given to conduct casinos; which led to Packer folding up his idea about his project, news sources say.
Co-ordination procedures were afforded by former Ministers Basil Rajapaksha and Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena for this 400 million project of millionaire Australian James Packer known as the the king of casino while the said Ministers ignored the protests voiced by the Buddhist Maha Nayakas of Sri Lanka and some other organizations too.
The past government wanted to launch the project under the pretense of an entertainment facility avoiding the term casino, thus naming the project as a new Act by presenting it to parliament under such cover.
As such, Packer had begun developing the said project with the connivance of two other businessman in Sri Lanka and had even prepared plans to establish a location similar to Las Vegas Casino in Colombo thus launching a casino den in Asia.
The former regime did not give ear to religious leaders who protested that this could turn out to be a place where all sorts of vice could take place and thus destroy the cultural image of the country and had even released all taxes from it -- which then surprised the country.
