For two decades, we have accompanied and lived, shoulder to shoulder, all the ups and downs of the gambling industry in Colombia, trying to unite the different segments that integrate it to make it more visible and boost its growth.

In fact, I believe that without having proposed it as a vision of our work, today we are part of the history, the present and the future of this item that today is key to the public finances of the country.

I remember the first fair held in Cartagena in 1999 with five slot machine exhibitors and the support of some gambling companies and the Third Committee of the House of Representatives, when it began to be debated in the Congress of the Republic which would become the Law 643 of 2001, which opened the doors to formalization and legality.

Since then, much water has run under the bridges. Almost dead times with precarious developments and eternal inventories. The slow but steady arrival of new brands present throughout the world, which looked out in fear of a country that was experiencing a conflict with a group outside the law, whose actions put us for 50 years in the public pillory.

After the online connection to the Coljuegos control system, the industry began to position itself and we have seen in the last five years, reputational advances of great value, cooperation and leadership in actions against money laundering, strength in the union dialogue with the regulator and participation in the formulation of the National Development Plan 2018-2022.

We believe that the future is promising. That the government of Iván Duque, guarantees opportunities within the law and that, as our ancestors said, “on the road charges are fixed” and that the divergences arisen between the Law of the PND and the regulation of Coljuegos, against the interests of medium and small entrepreneurs, they will be overcome.

For the gambling sector in Colombia, we are confident that a luxury dinner will be coming in several stages.

Greater legality, new games for centennials, incorporation of millennials to the world of sports betting, indeclinable offers of located to attract new audiences and the arrival of more investors who will make alliances to access markets in the Caribbean and Central America.

21 years ago, we were born as Andean Fair of Gambling, FADJA and evolved timidly 5 years ago, breaking down the acronym as American Fair of Gambling, Feria Americana de Juegos de Suerte y Azar, by its name in Spanish, under the same brand. We are starting a new era with GAT EXPO Gaming & Technology, incorporating technology to the traditional conceptual axis of the fair.

It's about seeing the fair grow, from the regional to the global, from gambling to technology. We hope that the third decade of the 21st century will pave all the paths for high productivity of the entire value chain that includes creativity, technology, marketing, marketing and satisfaction of the end user, the player, who is the life of the business. Sure, we will write a new chapter, Coljuegos I trust understand.

The die is cast We play it for Cartagena!