Former POGO Operators Shift to Sri Lanka Port City

Kyle Kevin

iGaming Writer

Fact Checked

Former POGO operators are relocating to Sri Lanka’s Port City SEZ, recruiting workers from China, Vietnam, and the Philippines to run online gaming operations targeting restricted markets.

Sri Lanka. That is where former Philippine offshore gaming operators are setting up shop. An investigation by MonetaBrief, published in Sri Lankan newspaper The Island on Sunday, found that some of the POGO largest online gaming syndicates now operating in Sri Lanka appear to be former POGOs. Their Philippine operations shut down following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s ban on the sector. The recruiters are active. Advertisements target former gaming workers from the Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The pitch is simple. Sri Lanka — specifically Colombo’s Port City Special Economic Zone — offers a more stable base for online gaming businesses targeting overseas markets. Thousands of workers have reportedly moved already. Some lack valid work permits. The operation is sprawling, loosely regulated, and growing fast. Sri Lanka’s new POGO Gambling Regulatory Authority Act took effect on December 1, 2025. Implementing regulations remain delayed. The gap between law and enforcement is exactly what these operators are exploiting.

The Port City Migration

Colombo Port City is a land reclamation zone on the western edge of the Sri Lankan capital. China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd invested $1.4 billion in the project. The zone operates under special economic rules that offer tax incentives, streamlined business registration, and lighter regulatory oversight. These features make it attractive to legitimate investors. They also make it attractive to operators seeking jurisdictional arbitrage.

MonetaBrief reported that larger online gaming groups appear to be operating either within the Port City ecosystem or through Board of Investment-approved business process outsourcing companies. The BOI approval is significant. It gives operators a veneer of legitimacy. A BPO licence is easier to obtain than a gaming licence. It also falls outside the scope of Sri Lanka’s nascent gambling regulations. The investigation identified high-rise buildings POGO in Colombo’s Fort, Town Hall, and Havelock City areas as online gaming hubs. These are central business districts, not industrial zones. The operators are hiding in plain sight.

The shift to Sri Lanka follows a familiar pattern. When enforcement intensifies in one jurisdiction, operators migrate to the next weakest link. The Philippines banned POGOs in 2024. Cambodia cracked down on cyber-scam compounds in 2023 and 2024. Myanmar’s border regions became too hot after military junta instability. Sri Lanka, with its new regulatory framework still unimplemented and its economy hungry for foreign investment, became the logical next stop. For regional enforcement trends, AGBrief tracks cross-border gaming developments.

Recruitment Networks and Worker Flows

The recruitment machine is systematic. Advertisements promote Sri Lanka as a stable alternative to the Philippines, Cambodia, and POGO Myanmar. The pitch targets POGO experienced gaming workers — customer service agents, payment processors, IT POGO support, and marketing staff. Many of these workers lost their jobs when POGOs shut down in the Philippines. Others fled Cambodian compounds during police raids. They are a mobile, skilled, and vulnerable workforce.

The investigation identified KJC and P3Bet as large online gaming networks allegedly operating from Sri Lanka and targeting Vietnam. King Group, which Vietnamese authorities targeted during a cybercrime crackdown in July, had also recruited workers for Sri Lankan operations. These are not small-time operators. They are organised syndicates with POGO established customer bases, payment infrastructure, and technical capabilities. Their relocation to Sri Lanka is a strategic move, not a desperate scramble.

Some Sri Lankan BPO and IT companies are reportedly assisting operators with business establishment, residence visas, and work permits. That is a critical enabler. Without local corporate partners, foreign operators cannot navigate Sri Lanka’s immigration and company registration systems. The BPO sector is large and legitimate. The risk is that legitimate companies are being used as fronts for illegal gaming operations. The line between outsourcing and money laundering is thin, and Sri Lankan authorities have limited capacity to police it.

Sri Lanka’s Regulatory Gap

Sri Lanka’s Gambling Regulatory Authority Act, No. 17 of 2025, officially came into force on December 1, 2025. The Act establishes a single regulator to oversee casinos, online gaming, offshore gaming operations, and betting activities — including those onboard ships and within Port City. It repealed three long-standing laws: the Betting on Horse-Racing Ordinance, the Gaming Ordinance, and the Casino Business (Regulation) Act of 2010. Existing operators must transition into compliance under the new regulator.

However, the Gambling Regulatory Authority itself has not yet been formally established. Parliament set a target date of June 30, 2026. That is nearly seven months after the Act took effect. In the interim, online casino operations POGO remain unregistered and untaxed. Officials revealed that between 60% and 70% of casino users in Sri Lanka now play online. Only 30% to 40% attend physical casinos. The revenue leakage is massive. The government has no mechanism to collect tax from online operators, and no enforcement body to shut them down.

Deputy Minister for Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne told MonetaBrief that Sri Lanka’s planned gambling regulations would apply across the country, including Port City. He said the government and law enforcement agencies were discussing the online gaming issue and developing cooperation with Thailand and Cambodia. The statement is reassuring in intent. It is less POGO reassuring in timing. By the time the GRA is operational and enforcement protocols are in place, the syndicates may have already embedded themselves deeply in Sri Lanka’s commercial fabric.

International Enforcement Response

The migration has not gone unnoticed. AGB reported in May that illegal online gambling and scam networks were moving into Sri Lanka following enforcement pressure elsewhere in Asia. The prediction was accurate. More than 1,000 foreign nationals — primarily from China, Vietnam, and India — have been arrested for cybercrime-related activities in Sri Lanka since the beginning of 2026. The arrests suggest that Sri Lankan law enforcement is aware of the problem. They also suggest that the scale of the influx is larger than authorities can manage.

China and Sri Lanka have stepped up cooperation against cross-border online gambling and telecom fraud. Chinese authorities attributed the movement of such networks to intensified enforcement in East and Southeast Asia. The cooperation is bilateral for now. A broader multilateral framework — involving the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Sri Lanka — does not yet exist. That is the enforcement gap the syndicates are exploiting. They operate across borders. The police do not.

Sri Lanka also faces a Financial Action Task Force review next year on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance. Establishing the GRA would help satisfy FATF expectations. However, FATF reviews look at outcomes, not just legislation. If Sri Lanka cannot demonstrate effective supervision of its online gaming sector, the review could result in a grey-listing. That would damage the country’s already fragile access to international finance. The stakes extend far beyond gambling regulation.

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This article has been thoroughly researched and reviewed by the CasinoBait editorial team to ensure accuracy and relevance for Asian casino players.