Colombia: Coljuegos President assesses his term in office

Juan B. Pérez Hidalgo was appointed as President of Coljuegos on March 30, 2016. During his administration, the gambling industry experienced such a dramatic growth, that Colombia became the first country to regulate online gambling. Coljuegos President highlighted this and further accomplishments in a statement released amid rumors about his continuity in office.

"Among the many achievements of this administration, I’d like to highlight the substantial growth obtained by licensing rights. While in 2012, USD 125.045.000 were generated in revenue, in 2017, over USD 180.161.000 were produced. This represents a 44% rise," Pérez Hidalgo pointed out in the statement released yesterday.

Of course, he also mentioned what has been considered to be the most important success of his term in office: "We’ve turned Colombia into the first country to ever regulate online betting.” They told us it would be impossible, but today, we are pleased to say we have 796.870 accounts registered in the 12 platforms that have been authorized by Coljuegos, which had to comply with a series of requirements in order to be awarded a license and begin operating online. Moreover, we have blocked 419 illegal websites operating in the national territory."

As regards land-based games, he reminded us of another great achievement: the online connection of electronic slot machines on an international level. "This allows us to gain access to sales, prizes paid and the outflows of every machine, while helping to promote transparency in gambling," he assured.