When an industry organization brings together stakeholders from 22 countries, represents approximately 87% of the Latin American lottery market, and increases its membership by 35% in just two years, we are probably looking at something more significant than the growth of an association.
We are seeing an industry increasingly organizing itself across borders around challenges that no single country can fully address on its own.
CIBELAE —the Ibero-American Corporation of State Lotteries and Betting— has just marked its 38th anniversary. Today, it brings together 27 lotteries and operators and more than 60 companies serving the sector.
But its relevance goes well beyond membership numbers.
Its structure helps explain why.
CIBELAE operates six technical committees covering Legal Affairs, Technology, Products, Processes, Anti-Money Laundering, and Social Responsibility and Responsible Gaming. More than 90 professionals participate in these working groups, producing research, management tools, training initiatives, best-practice frameworks and technical standards.
This is not simply a networking organization.
Its Legal Affairs Committee studies gaming regulations across different jurisdictions and compares how countries are addressing common regulatory challenges. Its Products Committee analyzes the Ibero-American market, trends and product development. Its Anti-Money Laundering Committee works on guidance, training, sector diagnostics and standards based on international frameworks such as those developed by the Financial Action Task Force.
CIBELAE has even developed its own Technical Standard for Anti-Money Laundering, with around 40% of its regular members already achieving the first certification level. It also promotes the WLA Security Control Standard, Responsible Gaming certification, research into illegal gambling and a regional Gaming Map designed to compare products and markets.
Who is participating in these discussions?
In Colombia, the Medellín Lottery is a regular member, and its General Manager currently holds a seat on CIBELAE’s Board of Directors. Colombian professionals also participate in several technical committees. Companies such as Grupo Réditos, Cadena S.A. and Thomas Greg & Sons Colombia are among its associate members.
Chile is represented by institutions including Polla Chilena de Beneficencia and Lotería de Concepción, with participation extending into technical areas such as products and anti-money laundering.
Brazil has an even broader institutional presence through organizations including CAIXA Loterias, Loteria da Paraíba, LOTTOPAR and LOTERJ. CAIXA and LOTTOPAR are represented on CIBELAE’s Board, while Brazilian professionals participate across several technical committees.
This matters because regulatory, technical and commercial experiences developed in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Spain, Argentina, Portugal or Costa Rica no longer remain confined within their national markets.
They are discussed, compared and eventually transformed into guidelines, standards and best practices that can later return to domestic markets with a different level of institutional legitimacy.
CIBELAE itself defines among its objectives the promotion of research, cooperation agreements, greater legislative harmonization and common policies against illegal gambling.
For companies developing technology for regulated gaming markets, this evolution deserves close attention.
The future of gaming in Latin America is no longer being shaped exclusively inside national ministries, regulatory agencies, casinos or manufacturers.
It is also being shaped in regional forums where regulation, operators, technology, laboratories, suppliers and institutional knowledge increasingly converge.
And perhaps that is the most important message behind CIBELAE’s recent growth:
gaming may still be regulated country by country, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to develop the industry country by country.
