We interviewed Ángelo Gómez, a businessman in localized traditional bingo games, who has been with his company for 8 years and comes from a family that has operated this type of game for more than 30 years in Valle del Cauca.
M.V. Ángelo, in article 32 of Law 643, bingos are defined, just like casinos, as localized games; The casinos have already reduced the 12% rate as part of the Coljuegos program. How have you (the bingos) benefited from this reduction by paying by income and not by Silla as you did before?
Angelo. At the moment we have not obtained the benefit of 12%, this year the minimum wage grew by 16% as well as taxes such as VAT and UVT, which has led us to pay much more taxes. This not only puts one more obstacle to our growth, but also makes us uncompetitive. In games of chance, courtesies and snacks are necessary to attract a clientele, as investment capacity is lost year after year and there are no pending businesses. positive growth we must reduce them, the necessary minimums are no longer an option, in the case of bingos, not even coffee can be given away.
M.V. If, as you say, they continue to pay for the Chair, is this because the Bingo operators have failed to make the Online connection that should have been made at the beginning of 2023 according to the Coljuegos project?
Angelo. The entity has called us on several occasions to review the issue of +12%, they have set times for its implementation and have always failed to comply. They visited our premises in Cali where they realized that the bingo activity has been slowly dying year after year due to the impossibility to grow at the rate of income and not with a fixed rate that implies goals that can be affected by the weather, politics, security, diseases, the payment of government aid and well, just to mention a pandemic.
The curious thing about the lack of implementation is the fact that for bingo the entity only has to connect a computer to see the movement of the bingo halls, while in casinos there must be a device for each machine and a machine room small can have a minimum of 20 machines. That makes one wonder if there is actually an internal motivation for not providing the benefit.
M.V. What do you think Coljuegos should do then so that they can continue their operation since in the reports that are generated, those located including bingos, they contributed 86 thousand million pesos to health this past quarter.
Angelo. COLJUEGOS should give those who use the fixed rate the possibility of leaving it with it -which is the country's big bingos that are few- and give the rest of the gaming micro-entrepreneurs the opportunity to envision a profitable business that is not chained to a shackle. The answer is given by the figures, in the case of bingo halls for the year 2000 it was estimated that more than 400 bingo halls operated throughout the national territory, today these bingo halls do not exceed 100, which is largely due to how difficult it is to set up a business and know that the following month you will have to pay 12 million pesos without knowing if your business works or not, in addition to having a contract of at least three years committed to that payment, win or lose.
MV: Angelo, thank you very much.
Angelo. I would like to add that while the bingo game slowly dies and bleeds to death, several of the operators in private meetings have discussed the possibility of not renewing our operating contracts at their expiration. Finally, the costs of a bingo out of taxes are higher than its simile in the machine rooms; a bingo hall needs at least 6 direct jobs and the rents are high, a machine room can be well accommodated in a space of 40 meters, whereas a bingo hall in a capital city requires 250 meters or more to be implemented and then it is not possible find a low cost lease for such a large area. Taxes consume almost 65% of monthly spending, adding up between Coljuegos and La Dian to close to twelve million per month.
