Colombia makes important step towards allowing live dealer casino

Colombia’s gambling regulatory agency Coljuegos, issued a draft decree on Friday featuring measures to allow licensed operators to add live-dealer casino games as well as to share international liquidity for online poker and exchange betting.

Colombian Regulated Market

Colombia became the first Latin American jurisdiction to formally approve online gambling in October 2016.

Since then, the country is working to stop unlicensed activities in the country and to allow licensed operators to operate in the country. Since it became a regulated market, Colombia issued five online gambling licenses. Wplay.com was the first to gain its license under the new law in June and with its deal with Quickfire, it brought content from Microgaming to Colombian users.

Shortly after, Corredor Empresarial launched Betplay.com.co. while domestic operator Colbet acquired its own license just last month. GAMING1 and Vicca Group, top casino operator in the country, launched Zamba.com at the beginning of this month as the result of their partnership, offering selection of games including blackjack, slots and roulette. Codere Apuestas became the sixth online sports betting licensee on Friday. It is expected for two more licenses to be awarded before the end of the year, Spanish operator Luckia and Sportium, a joint venture of Spanish operator Cirsa and UK bookmakers Ladbrokes.

All operators appreciate the initiative and support of Coljuegos regarding the online legislation and hope their products and services will have a warm welcome by Colombian players who will soon also be allowed to play live casino games.

Draft Decree

In a draft decree published on its website last week, Coljuegos explains that this move will help Colombia to become “even more competitive” with worldwide licensed operators that are active in the country without a national license.

Coljuegos has asked stakeholders to present comments on the proposals by November 20. The most notable proposal is allowing licensed operators to conduct live dealer blackjack, baccarat, roulette games and random number generator (RNG) products.

Keno products, virtual sports and racing betting services will also be permitted. In regards to poker liquidity sharing, it would be allowed only with operators in other regulated markets like Italy, France, Portugal and Spain, four European Union member states that have legalized internet gaming and regulations in place. Sharing poker liquidity would start at the beginning of 2018.

This would help Colombia in eliminating the current ring-fenced restriction which was the main reason why PokerStars withdrew from Colombian market back in July.