Gambling Regulatory Authority Act 2025 · As enacted · Part VII · General Provisions
60. Power to examine books and records and to search gambling premises
Official English translation. The Sinhala text prevails. Open the official Sinhala text, official PDF on documents.gov.lk
Official translationFrom Department of Government Printing, unchanged
The Board or any officer of the Authority authorised by the Director-General in that behalf may, examine the books, registers, records, or documents and inquire into the business and affairs of a licensee or search a gambling place or premises accompanied by a peace officer for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the Act or any regulations, rules, directions, or guidelines made or issued under the Act, and for that purpose may-
at any reasonable time, enter any premises, in which the Board or authorised officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that there are books, registers, records, or documents relevant to ensuring compliance with the provisions of this
Act;
use or cause to be used any computer system or data processing system found in the premises, to examine any data contained in or available to the system;
reproduce any record, or cause it to be reproduced from the data, in the form of a printout or other intelligible output and remove the printout or the output for examination or copying;
use or cause to be used any copying equipment in the premises to make copies of any book, registers, record, or document; or
make a note or an inventory of any other thing found in the course of any search which will be useful for, or relevant to take action under the provisions of this Act, and the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, No.15 of 1979, relating to searches shall apply, so far as may be, to searches under this section.
In this subsection “peace officer” shall have the same meaning as in the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, No. 15
of 1979.
The Director General shall record the circumstances which necessitate the exercise of such powers by the officer authorised under subsection (1).
Where any officer authorized by the Director General under subsection (1) takes into his possession any book, registers, record, or any other document from the gambling premises the officer who takes into possession any such item shall issue to the person who is responsible for the gambling premises a memorandum specifying the book, register, record, or other document he has taken into his possession.
Any book of account, register, record, or other document taken into possession by the officer authorized under subsection (1) may be retained in his possession as long as may be necessary for scrutiny of such book, register, record, or other document or for the institution of legal proceedings against the person to whom such book, register, record or other document belongs.
The owner or person responsible for the premises referred to in subsection (1) and every person found thereon shall give the Board or any authorized person all reasonable assistance to enable them to carry out their responsibilities and shall furnish them with any information that they may reasonably require with respect to the administration of this
Act or any regulations, rules, directions, or guidelines made or issued thereunder.