The president of Coljuegos, Juan B. Pérez Hidalgo, announced that during the collection for exploitation rights of gambling in Colombia went from 379,995 million Colombian colombian pesos in 2015 to 667,774 million Colombian colombian pesos in 2019, which means a growth of 76 percent; Likewise, he stressed that so far this year, as of September 2020, 254,000 million colombian pesos have been collected.
Gambling sector generate more than 100,000 formal jobs, occupy more than 20,000 commercial premises where rents are paid and contribute more than one trillion colombian pesos in exploitation rights between national and territorial games, of which 688,000 million colombian pesos it corresponds to sales taxes.
In relation to the economic reactivation process that Coljuegos has led in the face of the gambling industry, Pérez Hidalgo explained that several actions have been undertaken under three approaches: the reopening with the implementation of the biosafety protocols for the establishments ; secondly, sustainability, financial relief was promoted for operators, tariff reduction and the possibility of making interest-free payment agreements, and thirdly, the recovery of the sector has been sought through the expansion of the gaming offer online with live casino and other games such as bingo games with remote player presence and the immediate response incentive recently approved by the National Council for Gambling.
According to the President of Coljuegos, 347 concession contracts with the regulator are currently active, corresponding to 95 percent of the contracts signed.
"The sector of gambling has 2,737 authorized establishments operating, 84,462 Electronic Slot Machines operating and 14,860 seats in 80 bingo halls and 428 casino tables in operation," he added.
Pérez Hidalgo stressed that, despite the fact that the concession contracts were suspended, initiating the reactivation, the sector has had a faster recovery than other sectors of the economy, in the month of September around 254,000 million colombian pesos were collected, with a level of collection per game close to the figures that were handled before the pandemic. "In the month of October, we are aware that the SUPER Astro game will set a sales record and Baloto Revancha recorded the highest prize pool in history, with 58,000 million colombian pesos," he explained.
One of the aspects highlighted by the President of Coljuegos was the fight against illegality in gambling. “In an articulated way with the territorial entities, the unions and the authorities, the strategy 'Playing legal is betting on the health of Colombians' has been launched, which has allowed us to sign 25 pacts for legality, as well as technical tables in the different departments and cities of the country, ”said Pérez Hidalgo. In fact, the official adds that, to date, Coljuegos has reported an order to block the Cybernetic Police Center, an accumulated of 4,296 websites.
"Online gambling has registered accumulated sales of more than 11.3 billion colombian pesos and an amount of prizes paid that exceeds 10.3 billion colombian pesos, in a market that has 16 online gaming platforms authorized by Coljuegos", ratified.
Finally, the President of the regulator also recalled that the management of operations in which the elements of illegal gambling were removed has been advanced. "From 2016 to October 2020, a total of 1,141 control actions have been carried out that have allowed the withdrawal of 12,382 gambling elements that operated gambling illegally," he stressed. Likewise, Pérez Hidalgo added, in the last two years the destruction of game elements has increased by more than 50 percent and 22,952 confiscated elements have been destroyed.
