Colombia’s gaming authority Coljuegos shared a financial report on the industry’s development to date, which reported 73% growth in sales compared to the first half of 2019.
Amid stringent restrictions on in-person operators, in addition to the economic consequences of the pandemic, the online industry has hit 8.3 billion in sales in the months so far in 2021. In addition, the 17 authorized online operators reported 3.7 million active accounts ” Coljuegos had tax revenues of 394 billion pesos,” according to Confidential Colombia.
“The Ministry of Finance estimates that in 2021 the sector will contribute 6% to the growth of the Colombian economy, and the truth is that the figures for the first four months of the year point to this possibility,” added the same media outlet.
In turn, lotteries were one of the sectors that contributed the most to this growth, reporting a 63 percent increase in revenue. According to the Coljuegos report, the country’s 15 lotteries generated 281 billion pesos in the first half of 2021, compared to 172 billion in 2020.
Within this framework, Sorteo Extraordinario de Colombia was the game that generated the most profits, with 12,412 million pesos in revenue during the first half of the year, that is, a growth of 169.8% compared to 2020. When taking into account what was collected in 2019, the number broke the record by also increasing by 59.6%.
According to lottery president Mario Yepes del Portillo, as reported by El Heraldo, the growth is due to “factors such as the improvement of prize plans, compliance with prize delivery, credibility in this sector and support for the new administration of Coljuegos”. Thus, the healthcare sector received more than 15 billion in lottery contributions during the pandemic.
