Colombian regulator blocks 1,805 illegal sites

Coljuegos, the body in charge of egaming regulation in Colombia, has blocked 1,805 websites belonging to operators targeting Colombian citizens without a license.

Any person accessing these websites will be automatically presented with a message saying “Coljuegos and the Cybernetics centre of the National Police, after validation, established that the web page to which you have just entered is operating illegally games of luck and chance in the modality of “novel by Internet” in the Colombian territory.”

This latest blocking represents the largest number of sites blocked by the regulator since its founding, with websites belonging to Bet365, Ladbrokes and 888 among those being blocked. In March 2017, the regulator blacklisted over 300 sites belonging to a wide range of operators.

Under article 93 of the 2015 regulatory act, Colombian authorities “may monitor the channels, financial institutions, Internet sites and means that in any way serve the exploitation, operation, sale, payment, advertising or commercialization of unauthorized games of chance, and order alerts and blockades corresponding to these sites.”

Coljuegos has currently authorized only 14 operators to offer licensed online gambling to Colombian citizens.

Operators including Rush Street Gaming, Sportium, Alfabet, Codere Bets and Correador Empressarial are among those authorized with the Colombian market generating $42m according to recent estimates.