Colombia government credits online gambling for supporting GDP growth in Q2

National gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.1% over Q2 and the country’s National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) pointed to Colombian online gambling as one of the activities that most helped that growth.

DANE director Piedad Urdinola highlighted the impact of recent sporting activities in particular as driving a rise in online betting. In this summer’s Copa América tournament the Colombia national team reached the final.

Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Colombian gambling regulator Coljuegos, revealed that sports betting was indeed the largest contributor to the online betting sector, accounting for 47% of total gross gaming revenue (GGR) nationally.

Localised games such as bingo and casino were second with 33% of GGR, while lottery games AstroSport and Baloto generated 13% and 7% respectively.

“This important contribution of the gambling sector to the economy is due, to a large extent, to our advances in regulation, control of illegality and the positive growth that online betting showed during the Copa América and Euro Cup events,” Hincapié explained.

Colombia’s health sector benefitting from online gambling growth

Colombia was the first LatAm country to regulate igaming in 2016, when the Egaming Act legalised both online casino and online sports betting.

The tax rate stands at 15% of GGR for operators with a return-to-player (RTP) rate of 83% of stakes, while operators with an RTP of over 83% pay 17% of GGR.

With Colombia’s gambling industry on the rise, the health sector is profiting.

“This year, online gaming has seen an increase of nearly 20% in monopoly revenues paid to Coljuegos”, Hincapié continued. “This means that, to date, online betting has transferred around COP231.3m to the health of Colombians.”

Despite the strong growth of the country’s betting sector, Hincapié is setting his sights on more innovation to further boost the economy and bring in state contributions.

“We are pleased to know that the gambling sector is making a positive contribution to the country’s economy and health”, Hincapié said. “If we add up all the gambling concepts and modalities, to date we have already collected more than $581m.

“We hope that, in the remainder of the year, we can exceed our own projections and reach a collection of more than $1bn.”