On May 22, 2020, the guilds of the gambling sector (ASOJUEGOS, CORNAZAR and FECOLJUEGOS) sent a letter to Mr. Carlos Alberto Cuenca who is the president of the House of Representatives, expressing the delicate situation. The sector has been going through the closure of the casinos since March and that the biosafety protocols have not yet been processed.
As expressed in its letter, land-based casinos operators contribute more than 61% of the exploitation rights that are transferred to the health sector, which correspond to $ 382 billion Colombian pesos.
They argue that since the end of March a firm specialized in the elaboration of biosafety protocols was hired, in order to build sanitary measures, which provide all the guarantees of prevention and containment of Covid-19 so that the operation and operation of the rooms game and its value chain conforms to the measures required for the care of the players and workers.
The protocol that was created with the specialized firm "was brought to the attention of Coljuegos and with its agreement it was filed before the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, however, we are aware that it has not yet been processed," they argue. the unions in the letter sent to Cuenca.
We went home
This means that 2,800 casino and bingo establishments that have been closed for more than two months have stopped contributing close to $ 90 billion to the country's public finances; of which 60 billion for exploitation rights that are transferred to the health of Colombians and $ 30 billion for VAT, putting at risk the more than 30,000 direct jobs that this industry generates.
At least, until the protocol is processed preventing an early opening of the establishments from being contemplated.
