COLOMBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Juan Camilo Carrasco, Asensi Abogados
The concessions will be granted by Coljuegos to oper- ators for periods lasting between three and five years, with only one licence per entity. A local presence through a local company incorpo- rated in Colombia is required. (The operator can only be a Colombian commercial company or a foreign company branch incorporated in Colombia.) It must have a bank account with a Colombian finan- cial entity that is authorised by the Superintendence of Finance and must comply with the financial indicators defined by Resolution 20161200025334, setting forth the conditions and guarantees for applicants. New incorporated companies require at least USD450,000 of equity. The regulation includes all kinds of gambling. The exclusions are pari-mutuel betting, horse race bet- ting, lotto and numeric games. Domain names for operating in Colombia will need to be “.co” (“.com” sites are not allowed). Regarding the location of the technical components, only the data warehouse – ie, the vault and the cap- turer – must be located in Colombia. Therefore, the main servers can be located anywhere in the world. The operator must certify all the technical gaming sys- tem components before an authorised laboratory in Colombia by Coljuegos. Games must be certified as having a minimum return-to-player (RTP) figure set at 83% for slots, and real events must comply with the theoretical RTP formula. The operator must appoint a money laundering report- ing officer (MLRO) (compliance officer) and must implement the AML manual to comply with the Sys- tem for the Prevention and Control of Money Launder- ing and the Financing of Terrorism ( Sistema Integral de Prevención y Control del Lavado de Activos y de la Financiación del Terrorismo , or SIPLAFT). Addi- tionally, must implement the Ethics and Transparency program in accordance with the Superintendency of Health regulation.
As of 16 October 2024, the operator must comply with the new responsible gaming requirements and regulations. The guarantees requested from operators are as fol- lows. • Compliance insurance guarantee ‒ thiscovers: (a) a performance bond to cover the obligations of the contract and sanctions; (b) salaries and social benefits; and (c) the coverage of prize payment and reimburse- ment of players’ funds. • Liability guarantee – this is a civil tort liability guar- antee. • A fiduciary, bank guarantee or insurance policy to cover prize payments and reimbursement of players’ funds – the initial minimum amount for this guarantee is approximately USD200,000. The value of the coverage must be updated annually. 4.8 Application Fees Land-Based The response to the authorisation request must be issued within a term not exceeding 30 days following the filing of the petition. Online Once an application is received, the regulator has a legal deadline of two months for making a resolution or requiring additional information or clarifications. Once submitted, the response will have an additional one month for resolution. 4.9 Ongoing Annual Fees There are no application fees. Nonetheless, most companies must comply with certain financial require- ments regarding equity and debt factors. 4.10 Personal Licensing As previously discussed, exploitation rights apply to national and regional games. There are two types of exploitation rights: • fixed – an annual fixed rate applicable to internet- operated games, calculated as 811 times the legal
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