Universal Entertainment Colombo Quits Port City's Casino Resort Plot as Five of 10 Projects Fall Away

A casino applicant that studied the 10-hectare integrated resort plot at Colombo Port City has walked away during due diligence, officials told Sri Lanka's Parliament. Nobody has yet shown who stood behind it, and the casino rules any successor would need are still not in place.

• Universal Entertainment Colombo withdrew during due diligence on a 10-hectare plot earmarked for an integrated resort at Colombo Port City, Colombo Port City Economic Commission (CPCEC) Director General Revan Wickramasuriya told Parliament's Committee on Public Finance (COPF), according to EconomyNext
• Five of 10 earlier proposed Port City projects have now dropped out, including an Asiri Hospital project, a Gateway educational facility and a mixed-use scheme by Clothespin Management and Development
• The commission told the committee that nine plots have been leased for a total of $1.12 billion and that it is planning to lease six more valued at $1 billion
• Several trade outlets have identified the applicant with Japan's Universal Entertainment Corporation, owner of Okada Manila, but no parent company was named to the committee and Universal's own disclosures make no mention of Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka's Gambling Regulatory Authority Act has been in force since 1 December 2025, but the regulator told the same committee in July that its first licensing regulations were still under review, after casino levies rose in January

A Casino Applicant Walks Away From the Port City's Integrated Resort Plot

The withdrawal came up when the COPF, chaired by MP Dr Harsha de Silva, met CPCEC officials in Parliament on 8 October, according to Parliament. Reviewing 10 earlier approvals, the committee found five had withdrawn and five were still proceeding. "That was another applicant that considered the integrated resort plot... They came in; they, again, withdrew during their due diligence," Wickramasuriya said of Universal Entertainment Colombo, according to EconomyNext, which first reported the exchange on 15 October.

De Silva described the company as a gaming and casino applicant, and the 10-hectare plot is earmarked for an integrated resort under the Port City's development control regulations, according to an account of the hearing by Daily FT, republished by The Economic Times LK. The commission said some of the names on the committee's list had been in its pipeline but were never gazetted. It did not say whether Universal Entertainment Colombo was among them, and no reason for the exit, no investment figure and no timetable for the plot were disclosed.

The most striking withdrawal, according to that account, was Clothespin Management and Development, gazetted in July 2025 with plans for a seven-star hotel, luxury residences and a vertical art gallery meant to set a Guinness World Record. It had paid only a $10,000 application fee to the commission, members noted.

Parliament's statement does not mention the casino applicant. It records that nine plots worth $1.12 billion have been leased, all belonging to CHEC Port City Colombo, the Chinese project company, on 99-year terms at an average of $3,000 per square metre, earning the commission Rs398 million (approximately $1.2 million), its 1% of lease payments. Four government-owned plots are being prepared for market. The committee also examined how the commission identifies the beneficial owners of Port City investors, prevents money laundering and monitors about 14,300 foreign nationals granted visas on its recommendation.

Who Stood Behind the Applicant Is Not Established

Several gaming trade outlets have linked the applicant to Universal Entertainment Corporation, the Tokyo-listed parent of Okada Manila. That link is unconfirmed. No parent was named in the reported exchanges. Inside Asian Gaming attributed the identification to EconomyNext but said it could find no earlier reference to Universal interest in a Sri Lankan casino, and the EconomyNext report available on 16 October names no parent. Universal's 2025 annual financial information lists principal affiliates in Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, the United States and Cambodia, none in Sri Lanka, and none of its 2026 investor releases mentions the country. iGaming Times found no other public record of a company called Universal Entertainment Colombo.

The Missing Parent Is Exactly What the Committee Was Asking About

The session that heard about the exit spent its time on beneficial ownership, money laundering controls and the vetting of ambitious proposals before they are gazetted. An applicant for the zone's casino plot whose ownership is not on the public record sits squarely inside that concern. If the vehicle does belong to Universal, the exit is easy to explain: its only resort, Okada Manila, saw adjusted EBITDA fall 13% to PHP962 million (approximately $15.3 million) in the third quarter, after a 47.4% fall in its resort segment's adjusted EBITDA in 2025, and a group in that position might find a second greenfield resort hard to justify. If it does not, the public still does not know who reached due diligence on the zone's most sensitive plot. Either way, the CPCEC should say who it was dealing with.

A Casino Plot Without Casino Rules Is a Hard Sell

An integrated resort is priced on its licence: its term, its tax and the conditions attached. Sri Lanka's Gambling Regulatory Authority Act brings Port City gaming under a single regulator and repealed the Casino Business (Regulation) Act of 2010, but in July the authority told the COPF that its first regulations, covering licensing, online gambling and anti-money laundering, were still with a Cabinet-appointed expert committee, The Morning reported. De Silva complained then that similar promises had been made since 2022, and it is not clear from public records whether the regulations have since been issued. Meanwhile the levy on gross collections rose to 18% in January. Any due diligence this year would have met a licence regime that existed in law but not yet in detail. Melco's $1.2 billion City of Dreams Sri Lanka, fully opened in August 2025 a short distance from the Port City, was committed under the old regime.

The Headline Figures Are Leases, Not Buildings

The commission's $1.12 billion is the value of nine plots leased, not money spent on construction, and its target of another $1 billion depends on proposals surviving the kind of scrutiny that half the earlier ones did not. The leased plots are residential, mixed-use, marina and hotel schemes, several with construction under way, according to EconomyNext, a firmer base than an unbuilt casino. For the resort plot, the lesson is that investors are pricing the conditions around it, not only the land.

The Port City has lost an applicant for its casino plot at the due diligence stage, and it has not said who that applicant was. Until the commission names its counterparties and the regulator publishes its licensing rules, the plot will be hard to market.