Colombian gambling sector contributes over $1 billion to healthcare under Petro’s administration

(AsiaGameHub) –   Colombia’s gambling regulatory body Coljuegos announced on Thursday that the sector has funneled more than COP4 trillion (equivalent to $1.07 billion) into the country’s healthcare system starting from 2022.

Since Gustavo Petro was elected Colombia’s president in 2022, tax collections totaling COP4.01 trillion have been sent to the healthcare sector—an amount exceeding that of any prior administration.

This sum accounts for 44.46% of the COP9.2 trillion overall amount the gambling industry has directed to Colombia’s healthcare system since Coljuegos was established in 2012.

Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Coljuegos, stated that Petro’s administration has “made history in the industry” and expressed confidence that 2026 will be a record-setting year for healthcare support in Colombia.

“Under our leadership, the gambling sector has had its strongest period to date,” Hincapié told attendees at the 10th Ibero-American Gaming Summit in Bogotá. “Just this year, from January to May, we’ve already hit COP532.573 billion in revenue.”

“By 2026, we will exceed our own past records.”

VAT May Impact Gambling Tax Collections

Even as Hincapié is optimistic about a landmark year for healthcare funding in Colombia, the gambling industry is still grappling with increasing tax burdens.

For most of 2025, the industry was subject to a 19% value-added tax (VAT) on deposits, as the government aimed to fund its response to civil unrest in the Catatumbo region.

That VAT lapsed at the end of the year; while it was reimposed based on gross gaming revenue (GGR) through an emergency decree, the Constitutional Court later fully suspended it.

But in March, the government released Decree 0240, which levies a 16% VAT on GGR as an emergency measure to address flooding across the nation.

This has raised worries within the industry, particularly since Fecoljuegos—the sector’s trade association—disclosed in April of last year that Colombia’s online GGR had fallen by 30% in the two months following the initial VAT’s implementation.