Press release #12

THE IMPACT AND REACH OF GAMES OF CHANCE IN COLOMBIA WILL BE ANALYZED

A social economical study is presented in CIJA

It is a risk for the national government that part of the three trillion pesos that Colombians invest annually in entertainment and games of chance fall in the hands of those who bet on illegality, and this will be one of the main topics of the II International Gaming Fair which will take place in the X Andean Gaming Fair, FADJA 2008, during April 2 and 3 in Corferias.

Baltazar Medina, president of the Colombian Gaming Entrepreneurs Federation, FECEAZAR, organizer of the event, explained the purpose of the same: “In this event Colombia will show the need that the sector has so that the government stop observing the economical activity of the games as a marginal activity and that it be treated as an income activity and be considered as an integrating part of the productive sector and as a great contributor the economical and social development of the countries” he stated.

Taking advantage of the presence of attending international delegations to FADJA 2008, says Baltazar medina, FECEAZAR will present a work done by CINSET -the Corporation for the Colombian Social Economical and Technological Investigation- where the social economical impact of the gaming industry in Colombia was analyzed.

“We pretend, he says, to bring out two very important things. The first one is to present the governed with what we, in the industry, believe should be the bases for formulating a public policy of the games of chance in Colombian, which means that the Government define in which category or in which level of importance it considers the sector and that this be included in a pubic policy of compromise.”

Baltazar Medina concludes: “And having that public policy as a framework, to try to obtain with National Planning and the Vice-Minister of Educational Development the possibility of advance in the formulation of a CONPES document for the gaming industry, that is a macro regulation framework from which all the regulations, laws, decrees derive from it to stimulate the development of this activity. These are the two tasks left to the Federation and the association for the future.”

The meeting programmed by FECEAZAR and FADJA 2008 for the II International Gaming Fair will contribute in a decisive manner to the exchange of experiences and results that we have seen in the different countries in the fight against illegal betting and the compromise of operators to promote responsible games, the search of incentives for those who follow the law, the generation of compromises facing the prevention of money laundering and learning what’s new in the technology applied to the operation of games of chance.

FADJA PRESS