Without a doubt, Fernando Calderón is an expert on the issue of gambling regulation in Peru. In this conference, the President of the National Gaming Society began by explaining the Consequences of the online betting regulation process in said country and highlighted, of course, the sanction of Law 31557 “and its amendment last year after a series of ups and downs and a long road for it to be issued, it is finally promulgated after many questions, many consultations, many questions about this law and its regulations that finally come to life and begin to develop. And we are faced with this situation, with a regulation, in February the deadlines begin for those who are in operation to request their licenses, whether provisional or definitive, which means that the activity is fully regulated. And although it may sound repetitive, it is important to emphasize that gambling in Peru is 100% formal and with the law and regulations, the complete activity that is complemented by sports betting and online casinos, as it is an activity that in order to year we are probably going to say 100% formal with all operators and all participants and providers and integrated, interconnected, authorized services. Taking the image of our General Directorate of Casino Games and Slot Machines, the important thing is that we are already talking about a registry of owners, a registry of platforms, a registry of services, of integrators, of integrations, which really show the whole wide world. “is online betting and sports betting”

Then, he continued explaining the current situation of the gaming market in Peru and highlighted that “Within our digital economy, gaming has grown widely, here in Peru it has been there for more than 10 years and important national players who can give, help "Not that it is perfect because it is not perfect, but that the system does not make the mistakes that may have happened previously and that in fact have happened with the in-person game." He also added that “We consider that the purpose of this process is these four fundamental points: formalization, the issue of tax revenues, the stimulation of investment and economic diversification, because these four elements definitely generate growth, growth and development in our country. country that needs it so much, in our country where informality is currently growing by 80%. So, without a doubt, it is an engine, it is a force that we must be proud of and that we have to promote, we have to take care of.”

Gaming and Tourism

Calderón then expanded on the gaming industry and its relationship with tourism in Peru and highlighted that “As for formalization, the most important thing will be the consolidation of the entertainment industry and tourism. As I spoke with the Vice Minister this morning, the State does not promote gambling and as she said it supervises it, takes care of it, yes indeed and consolidates it and it is in the hands of the Directorate, the Vice Ministry of Tourism, the Minister, to be ours. spokespersons before PSM, be our spokespersons to explain the activity. The very important thing about regulated operators, also with the truthful explanation from Engineer Guerra, we will be able to establish that we are interconnected, not only in the issue of supervision or control that they can do of the IPs and the pages and those that do not have authorization or registration, but we must all commit, platforms, operators, integrators, that if we have any service that has not complied with the standard, we cannot be reciprocal and provide them or comply with that contract that we have, because we already They are explaining that the sanction is not being able to continue operating. Finally, approved and certified products give us security in the operation. Definitely, since they are transactions that are controlled, tracked, and supervised, they ensure that the end consumer has security in the transaction and the operation they are carrying out. And that is very important to maintain and inform”

The serious problem of gambling addiction

Later, Calderón referred to Responsible Gaming and explained that “Without a doubt, this is a very important task to culturalize, I am not going to use the term evangelize. It is a difficult task in our State and in society to be able to understand that we have prevention systems. They also already mentioned the figures from the gambling registry. Two thousand seven hundred people and with the systems that exist at the doors of the physical casino, with the systems that exist so that they can have a user and be able to function in online betting, well this is definitely going to portend a lot of success due to the responsibility that we must have in the use of these systems. Well, customer knowledge and the prevention of active money laundering go hand in hand and we definitely have to protect the vulnerable population to avoid what happens in a physical casino, where there are people with IDs that belong to their brother, dad, or who They are false, and if we have the appropriate systems they will jump, since that is much more trackable in an online operation. And I insist, hence the importance of taking this activity and taking care of it, taking great care of it.”

“I have established commitments with the General Directorate of Casino Games and Machines and they have really publicly presented their commitment to us. It is very important because it follows the line of the management in the issue not only of supervision, they are also giving us their commitment in the issue of prevention, of accompanying us in this process, and given the issue of deadlines, which is everyone's concern. , and they are publicly telling us that they are going to accompany us, so what should be our commitment as suppliers, as platforms, as integrators, as operators, so run, inform management, because they follow open door policies, inform them in what process we are in, how our procedures are going between the laboratories, and in some way we have a commitment to support and accompany each other in this final process of obtaining authorizations. The proportional criteria for evaluating and resolving approvals here is a challenge for the management and for us also to understand that the rules have to be the same for the operators, for the platforms, those that adapt us according to the reality of each one, but Finally, the guidelines given by management specifically have to be symmetrical. Prevention and control actions are very important, they are necessary. The team actually sounds like a team that works a lot, there are 68 people and they have a very big challenge because it is not that another direction has been generated and we have to support them and they have to support us so that the audits are instances of improvement, of maintaining standards, to amend, correct or clarify any situation that they may observe.”

Taxes and the State

“These are the issues of tax revenue that are an essential part or fundamental reason for the activity to be regulated but that the Peruvian State, despite the shortcomings it has, does not give signs and rather shows signs of attacking the activity by trying to request powers to the issue of the selective consumption tax. The stimulus for investment and economic diversification, we are in a growth market, we have the regulatory framework to apply it and this definitely generates all that economic movement that we talked about at the beginning, which is positive from the point of view of tourism, from the from an economic point of view for everything it represents, jobs, everything it represents in terms of additional services, indirect services, the entire digital issue, the entire marketing issue, the entire issue of, including sports, which generates activity continues to grow and there is economic movement as a result of income, as a result of work, as a result of taxes. An example from Colombia in recent years, although it is true that gambling activity had fallen in 2020, it was the first activity that opened after the pandemic because the resources go directly to health and contributed a lot to the pandemic crisis. , because as online betting grows and helps to create an economic movement approaching the issue of face-to-face gambling, that will generate taxes, it will generate jobs, it will generate economic movement.”

Finally, Fernando Calderón highlighted that “as online gaming has evolved in Spain, which is also associated with tourism, it is a tourist country par excellence, but its numbers, for two years, have increased after the pandemic due to the whole issue of physical casino, but also online gaming. So, we have to aspire to grow, to continue growing and to take care of the activity, the gambling activity, which is unique and is completely integrated into formalization and regulation. So, finally, it is the State's task, it is our task, from the point of view of responsible gaming, to take great care of the reputation of the activity, to be attentive to attacks on the activity and, again, with the words of the management, with the words of the vice minister today, with the words of the minister on other occasions, taking that commitment and adding and committing to them, makes the activity continue to grow and develop