Distribution and platforms: Can we ship through apps and platforms?

The only distribution-channel development is the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka's directive instructing all telecom providers to block access to 24 identified unlicensed gambling platforms, reported effective from 6 August 2026, exercising a blocking power under the Gambling Regulatory Authority Act, No. 17 of 2025. This is the first visible use of a telecom-level distribution control against gambling platforms under the new Act. The directive was not extended to the online arms of four transitioning Colombo land-based casinos, which continue to be reachable notwithstanding that they too lack a Digital Gambling Licence, since none has yet been issued to any operator under section 18(1). This creates an uneven distribution-channel outcome: offshore platforms face telecom-level blocking while a domestic, unlicensed online channel does not. No primary GRA or TRCSL publication detailing the scope, duration or formal legal basis of the blocking directive was located; the finding rests on a single T3 trade-press report.