Operator News
Colombia – Colombia to establish elite unit to combat illegal gambling
By Phil - 29 August 2019
About 40 per cent of gambling in Colombia is illegal, meaning that the state loses between $700bn and $800bn, almost US$250m according to gaming regulator Coljuegos.
The head of the agency, Juan B. Perez Hidalgo, said that organised crime is behind illegal gambling. “Here there are criminal gangs that are being investigated. In fact the Prosecutor’s Office is taking the job of pursuing the illegality of gambling very seriously. There are criminal structures that are stealing from the health of Colombians. The (gaming) sector has been professionalised and formalised to continue to combat money laundering and illegality,” he said.
A number of measures will be taken according to Hidalgo. “In order to end this phenomenon, the government is looking to form an elite body, which will be responsible for strengthening operations against illegal gambling and surveillance and control on this front will be intensified. We hope that this elite body will start working in about two months, currently what we are doing is working jointly with the governors, mayors and the unions of the sector to combat the illegal games of luck and chance,” said the official.
Hidalgo made the statements during the LAFT America Conference (Annual Congress against Money Laundering) held in Bogota last week. The conference, which is organised by the Colombian Association of Gaming Operators (Asojuegos) is aimed at strengthening anti money laundering measures in the sector.
In February the Colombian gaming regulator Coljuegos reported a record collection of revenue from gaming licensing and exploitation rights during 2018. Operator rights for gambling reached $574bn (US$184,499,343m), 9.8 per cent more than in 2017. Increasing revenue was derived mostly from casinos and bingo halls which made up $345bn, equivalent to 60.2 per cent of the total.
In December the board reported that one of the reasons behind increased revenue for the state was the clampdown on illegal gambling. In 2018 the board seized 2,813 illegal slot machines as well as a large haul of other illegal gambling equipment. It also blocked, with the help of other government bodies, as many as 2,616 unauthorised online betting sites and signed a number of pacts with regional governments in order to clampdown further and coordinate efforts on a national level.
