Legislation

Colombia’s Gambling board to be modernised

By James - 22 April 2024

The Higher School of Public Administration, a public institution in Colombia dedicated to providing education and training in public administration, has initiated the necessary studies for the institutional modernization of Coljuegos. The goal is for the entity to be more efficient when it comes to the regulation of gambling games as well as the collection of transfers for the health of Colombians.

“Institutions must adapt to changes, otherwise it becomes very difficult to fulfil their mission objectives. In Coljuegos, we have an institutional design that dates back 13 years, and nowadays the industry has grown alongside technological advancements,” said Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Coljuegos.

He added, “We have the responsibility to exercise the monopoly on gambling revenues, that’s why we must modernize through institutional redesign and technological transformation. We must pave the way for the future of the industry in the country.”

Coljuegos operates with the same organizational structure as the previous board The Territorial Enterprise for Health (ETESA), an entity that was liquidated in 2011 by the National Government.

“If in 2012 we received $220,000 million in transfers, and today we are obtaining close to $897,000 million, it is essential to strengthen ourselves institutionally. We aspire that, in the long term, we can obtain close to $3 billion in transfers for the health of Colombians,” said the president.

Through the inter-administrative contract, ESAP will conduct the study in three stages: diagnosis, proposal for organizational restructuring, and development of the necessary regulations to implement the redesign. Therefore, it is expected that the process will be completed in about eight months.

“ESAP has a lot of experience in conducting institutional redesigns for state entities. That’s why we believe this is the most appropriate entity to help us with the administrative reorganization that our entity desperately needs,” Hincapié concluded.