In Cesar $1.1 billion is lost due to illegal games of luck and chance

Illegality in games of luck and chance is a phenomenon that affects income for the health sector throughout the national territory, in addition to generating the evasion of resources that leads to the illicit enrichment of those who promote it.

For this reason, in the department of Cesar, the second most affected territory on the Coast by this irregularity, a committee was held to combat illegal gambling, with the presence of Coljuegos, Government of Cesar, Supergiros, National Police and other departmental and municipal authorities of the region, in order to evaluate the situation and plan strategies that allow the recovery of income from this concept.

Andrés Rojas, Secretary of Departmental Finance, reported that Cesar in the last four years collected nearly 3.1 billion pesos annually, reflecting a loss of $1.1 billion due to illegality and that represents 40% of the collected, resources that range to the detriment of health and the most vulnerable population.

“Valledupar and Aguachica are the two cities with the greatest illegality, through Keno, which is a bingo with a totally illegal system that does not have any authorization from either the department or Coljuegos. In addition to this, we have more than 200 slot machine locations for illegal games, which has been notified to the National Police for the relevant operations,” the official explained.

Given this balance, the committee was carried out with the objective of establishing initiatives and strategies that allow control against illegal chances and bets in the department of Cesar, complying with the guidelines of Decree 0247 of 2018, which directs the different institutions to carry out These activities allow us to identify the income that comes from betting and permanent games in the territory.

CESAR, THE MOST ILLEGAL

Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Coljuegos, stated that at the national level there are transfers of around 880 billion pesos that are destined for the health sector, coming from games authorized by Coljuegos such as Baloto, Super Astros, virtual games, sports betting, casinos, among others.

For this reason, Coljuegos’ function is the legal management of the profitable monopoly of luck and chance, that is, only the State can carry out and organize games in the national territory.

However, currently the illegality almost borders on more than a billion pesos in transfers, slot machines being the most recurrent, and in Cesar the situation is critical.

Some national raffles and influencers or YouTubers hold illegal raffles through social networks, a situation that is serious and that is why several investigations have been opened. Outside the law there are bets and permanent evasion, which is why they risk Coljuego confiscating, for example, the slot machines, imposing a fine ranging from 400 million pesos and losing the real estate for allowing this activity. illicit

“El Cesar is one of the departments of the Coast with the highest level of illegality, much more so than Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cartagena and La Guajira. For this reason, we are working to regulate this activity through mechanisms that allow us to attract them to legality,” said the president of Coljuegos.

Throughout the country there are more than 100,000 illegal machines and 107,000 legal ones, which shows that the State is failing to receive other large resources from people who work without authorization.

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