Under the moderation of Dr. Miguel Ángel Ochoa Sánchez, President of AIEJA, a panel of experts in the gaming market composed of  Marco Emilio Hincapié, President of Coljuegos of Colombia, Luis Gama, managing partner of Gaming Consultores and former National Director of Lotteries and Quinielas in Uruguay, Javier Balbuena, Director of Gaming Consultores and former President of CONAJZAR for Paraguay and José Casapía,  member of SONAJA and Manager of Institutional Relations of NOVOMATIC Peru, debated a hot topic: the regulatory experiences in South America against illegal gambling.

Who are the actors in the gaming world?

Miguel Ángel Ochoa, President of AIEJA, began the conference by explaining that “Gambling worldwide has several actors. A key player is the one who has a license or permit to operate physical or online casinos. Another is the one who provides services to the casinos; others are the employees and unions of the casinos themselves. Yet another is the casino associations. And there is an issue that sometimes seems to be forgotten, but that is the regulators or gaming authorities. They are the ones who determine the direction e-gaming is going in the world. In Latin America, we have unfortunately had a high turnover of regulators.”

And he added , "In Mexico, in the 16 years I've been in the industry, there have been 16 regulators. That is, whoever arrives, starts learning, and when they learn, they leave. That experience is lost.

This isn't the case in some countries, like Colombia, where the regulator has lasted a few years—three, four, even six years. Or in Peru, where Manuel San Román served as regulator for 15 years. Or in Uruguay and Paraguay, where the renewals have been shorter".

The Colombian case

Dr. Marco Emilio Hincapié explained, "Our political charter established that games of chance, and the revenues from games of chance, are a state monopoly, which grants the state entity the power to regulate all games of chance. Along these lines, legislation has also developed fundamental principles for the protection of this corporate purpose, which is that the monopoly resources derived from games of chance will be allocated to the subsidized healthcare of Colombians. The entire institutional apparatus, including the Ministry of Health, the banking superintendency, and the involvement of state oversight bodies, is permanently ready not only to oversee but also to make important recommendations regarding these developments or any fiscal observations that may be submitted."

And he added, "Thus, the criminal law also developed a concept to apply to illegality. It is the concept of the illicit exercise of the state's monopolistic activity. We are combating illegality; it is one of our goals."

The fight against illegal gambling in Uruguay

Luis Gama, Gaming Consultants, former National Director of Lotteries and Quinielas, Uruguay,   then spoke. He explained, “I am a former regulator and I am free of any obligations. I can say, whether you agree with it or not, what my vision is and my ten-year tenure as a regulator. In other words, I enjoy being in this position as a former regulator. I have fought many battles, some of which I have won, and others I have failed with complete success. But what I am clear about is that we must defend legal gaming with all possible tools and decisively combat illegal gaming. And illegal gaming is any activity that is carried out without the corresponding authorizations. It is present in countries in the region, with or without regulation. We must be clear about that.”

 He also emphasized that, “In some countries, illegal gambling is more prevalent than legal gambling. We're also clear about that. And we also need to be clear that there are some gamblers in our countries in the region who are gambling and aren't sure whether the place where they're gambling is authorized or not. So, this should also be a cause for concern for all of us. And I want to address the issue of legislation. Legislation has consequences. We need to know what kind of consequences it has and what it affects when we're legislating. What I've been seeing for some time now is that, well, Latin America is the most impoverished region on the planet, right? There are needs, and after the effects of the pandemic, well, the region has suffered greatly.”

The situation in Paraguay

Javier Balbuena, Gaming Consultants, former President of CONAJZAR, Paraguay, concluded by emphasizing that  “ this enemy that we all face in different countries must be addressed primarily from a team perspective. It must be a collaboration between the public and private sectors. I believe that one of the virtues of my administration, as I headed the CONAJZAR National Commission for five years, is that to this day I am the commission's longest-serving president. He also noted that the shorter the term, the less likely it is to achieve positive management. So, this opening of the private sector to the public sector provides the possibility of a more powerful fight against clandestine and illegal gambling.”

Finally, he explained that " the problem with online gambling is that we don't know the physical location of the operators. But there are tools, like Paraguay's new gambling law, which has an administrative tool. It's not necessary to go to the Attorney General's Office or the Judiciary to obtain blocks for websites or online platforms. It's a constant struggle to continue blocking and blocking until exhaustion, but it doesn't end with just blocking or filing a complaint with the Attorney General's Office. I believe that the State must make the names of websites and clandestine platforms public, so that all of society knows who they are, what those platforms are, and, if possible, who the owners of that platform are and who the companies that supply these clandestine platforms are."

 A few words about legislation in Peru

To finish, José Casapía, a member of SONAJ and Manager of Institutional Relations at NOVOMATIC Peru , stated that to combat illegal gambling, first and foremost, we must have a good law. "Otherwise, we can't be 100% legal." Regarding the situation in Peru, he noted, "Currently, we have 310 companies operating only casinos and slot machines, 669 gaming halls, only 17 casinos with tables, and 70,000 slot machines. In gaming and sports betting, we have 54 companies and 4,920 jobs."

And he concluded that “the goal we want is to have a healthy society, an industry that increasingly progresses, a good amount of taxes, and above all, that taxes go where they should go.”

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