Colombia: The attraction of a regulated games of chance market

During the last years, Colombia has become an international benchmark with regard to gambling and betting innovations. This happened thanks to the important regularization that the industry has had, which allowed the development and growth of the activity.

The evolution began in November 2011, when the agency responsible for gambling, ETESA, was dissolved and a new entity, Coljuegos, was created and assumed control of slots, bingo halls and casino games. This institution was in charge of conducting an investigation of the gambling establishments and verifying all the regulation of casino games in Colombia. This way, they began to clean up the market and the industry.

The regularization took a step forward to help the growth of Colombia casino games in 2015, with Law 1753, of the National Senate Development Plan, which established various guidelines. Nevertheless, the update of online gaming was still missing.

In April 2016, Coljuegos published a draft resolution to regulate online betting. All these laws and the great work of the state entity, have contributed to the further development of private enterprise in the industry, in relation to the rest of South American countries, so it has become an example to follow.

The collection that the Colombian state receives with regard to the gambling activities is allocated to public health services. These resources have increased considerably in recent years; all an achievement for Colombia.

The attraction of a regulated market

Currently, Colombia offers legal certainty and clear rules to invest and do business in the different segments of the gaming industry such as casinos, gambling halls, games of chance and lotteries. In relation to online betting, Colombia is a leader with 18 portals authorized by Coljuegos for online and virtual sports betting. Currently, the country has two million five hundred thousand (2,500,000) active online players.

On the Coljuegos page https://www.coljuegos.gov.co/index.php you can see the list of authorized game operators, funds raised for health, regulations, news, procedures and services operators, attention to the citizen and transparency, among other issues.