"The National Development Plan encourages growth of the legal gambling industry in Colombia," "Article of the PND would take away $ 200,000 million annually from health", that is how some national media have described the new modifications made to the National Development Plan, PND, presented by the Government of President Ivan Duque for 2018 - 2022.
However, this will give new life to the industry that has been shouting for sustainability with greater guarantees, which have been called into question in the last letter sent by Juan B to the finance ministry.
After more than 50 hours of plenary, it was possible to endorse 333 articles of the bill in the Congress of the republic that will begin to take effect in less than a month, since it only needs the signature of the president, which would happen in the next weeks.
The importance of these modifications is that since the creation of Coljuegos, the entrepreneurs have expressed their desire for the regulatory authorities to focus on the legal and organic growth and development of the industry, through strategies that allow the operator Any type of gambling can have sustainable profitability to expand its game offer.
Articles 60, 61, 62 and 63, presented the regulatory and tax changes to the regime of the rent monopoly of the gambling industry, and have been rated as the most important in the last decade in the regulatory history that regulates this important sector in the country.
Article 61 modifies the basis for calculating the tax settlement for casinos and gambling halls. changing the collection system and going from slot machine to slot machine to collect a tax on all authorized slot machines in the concession contract.
The new value of the tax will be 12% of the subtraction between the total gross income (value that the machine's entry counter shows) less the premiums paid. For bingo halls the gross income is the total value of the cards sold for each period to be settled.
This is complemented by Article 63 that guarantees the prohibition of any additional taxes, fees, stamps, or taxes of a municipal, district or departmental character, different from those that must be paid to the State, by way of exploitation right.
In principle, the measure can be seen with bad eyes since the money that is turned to the health by the payment of the operators on the rights of exploitation of the 87,000 slot machines existing in the country will be reduced by 57% from this approval. However, this will also allow space to create new strategies that increase collection again in a way in which the operator and the final player do not directly and aggressively feel the rigor of an increase in the tax they pay, but rather it will give possibilities for organic growth to the collection itself and to the casinos as such.
The reduction of 200,000 million Colombian pesos in the turns made by the industry to the health of Colombians, despite the fact that it creates a strong alarm among Colombians because it is considered a very important reduction in money that enters the health system, it will not be felt in the short term because (if the expansion of new markets and the celebration of other innovative games continue) it will be compensated with this income plus the new businesses that can be created by the operators.
It is also to be expected that the Gambling industry will take some time to react, since there are not a few companies that are in negative balances, before starting the creation of more supply since they generate losses before the presumptive rate and must absorb the low production of some equipment, which is why they are in deficit.
