Colombia is a country that is continuously trying to keep up with the world. In the last couple of years, they have taken strategic steps when it comes to the gambling industry and it looks like they are planning on making more.
Expanding Their Reach:
Their regulated online gambling market has just acquired a brand-new license. Fortunately, this isn’t the first one for them. They have successfully obtained seventeen of them, meaning they are preparing themselves for further growth and expansion.
This week, Colombian gambling regulatory body, Coljuegos, issued a statement where they announced that they have given their 17th online gambling license to the Games and Betting S.A.S. a company that offers casino and sports betting products from their Betjuego.co domain.
Furthermore, this license will expire in three years and then they will assess whether they should elongate it or not.
Pioneers In South America:
Less than two years ago, this country gave out its first online gambling license. Namely, it has become the first country from this region to allow online gambling legislation. This occurred back in October.
Last year was very efficient and lucrative when it comes to this aspect. Out of 17 online licensees that were issued, ten of them obtained official permits in 2018!
Obviously, Colombia is able to see how beneficial this part of the industry can be. Moreover, Coljuegos president, Juan B. Perez Hidalgo, just recently held a small celebration to honor the growth and progress of the regulated market over the past nineteen months.
Continuous Improvement:
According to statistics and reports, the regulator earned a lot of money from online taxes, including fees. They gained approximately COP37.9 b which is around US$12.26 million last year.
In comparison to 2017 this figure is seven times bigger. Back then, it was around COP5.3 b. This amount represents 6.6 % of Coljuegos’ complete collection from gambling rights last year.
Furthermore, this operator claims that less than two million individuals registered with Colombian-licensed online operators at the end of the last year. Surprisingly, this sum has gotten bigger in the meantime and now surpasses 2 million.
In order to prevent foreign companies from serving users without a local permit, the Ministry of Information Technologies cooperated with the Police Cybernetic Center and local services providers and blocked more than 2,600 domains.
Perez Hidalgo wanted to stand up for his country and therefore made a deal with local players to do a good thing for Colombia and patronize the seventeen locally licensed operators.
Source: “Colombia Welcomes 17th Online Gambling Licensee Betjuego.co” https://calvinayre.com/2019/02/26/business/colombia-17th-online-gambling-license-betjuego/. Calvin Ayre. February 27, 2019.
Comment: Wow, that’s quite a few licenses for Colombia. Congrats!
