Legislation
Colombia – Coljuegos signs anti illegal gaming pact in Tolima
By James - 18 March 2024
The president of Coljuegos, Marco Emilio Hincapié, the manager of the Tolima Lottery, Alexander Castro; the manager of Gana Gana, Alejandro Tamayo; and representatives from various entities, signed the Grand Pact for Legality and Transparency in Colombia. The objective is to raise awareness about the importance of legal gaming in Tolima.
“Today, at the Tolima Governor’s Office, we have signed the Grand Pact for Transparency and Legality, an agreement of wills involving the Prosecutor’s Office, the Police, Coljuegos, our legal gaming concessionaire which is Gana Gana. And the message we have today is a fight against crime, a fight against illegal gambling, which causes losses of more than 20 billion pesos in the department of Tolima and directly affects the health of its people. It is good news that we have signed this grand pact for legality and transparency with Coljuegos, with civil and military authorities to fight forcefully against these illegal activities,” stated Alexander Castro, manager of the Tolima Lottery.
“To the Tolima Lottery, Gana Gana, and the citizens, we say that here we have the presence of the National Government, the national authority to guide, to help, and to collectively combat the illegality that is taking away resources from health. More than one trillion pesos from health are slipping away from us, when that money could really serve to address many needs of children, women, and people with few resources,” said the president of Coljuegos.
Likewise, in order to promote this campaign for legalization, actions will be taken throughout the department and in the capital, through the Tour de los Ganadores (Winners’ Tour) an event that will visit a municipality of Tolima and a neighbourhood in Ibagué once a month. This activity will also include games of chance and aims to raise awareness among citizens about betting or operating legally.
Coljuegos has signed a number of similar pacts with local governments since 2017. The Pact for Legality of the Gambling Sector is a strategy with which Coljuegos aims to combat illegal gaming and raise funds for the health sector and the first one was signed in 2017. Typically the implementation of the pact is followed by closer coordination with the police, the prosecutor’s office as well as the municipal and departmental governments.
