The Colombian anti-money laundering system has managed to progress towards its objective of strengthening compliance with the international standards through specific actions thanks to the contribution of the Colombian Gaming Control Board (Coljuegos), a state-authorized regulator regarding both land-based and online gambling, as well as other public and state entities.

The Colombian gambling regulator joined the work of the Colombian Financial Superintendence, the Colombian Superintendence of the Solidarity-Based Economy, the Colombian Superintendence of Companies, the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (DIAN), the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, and the Information and Financial Analysis Unit (UIAF) in order to improve the Colombian anti-money laundering system.

A New Instrument for Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention

It is worth recalling that on January 15, 2022, DIAN brought into operation one of its most important tools in order to prevent companies and other legal structures without legal personality from being used for money laundering and financing of terrorism purposes.

On December 27, 2021, DIAN issued a Resolution 164, according to which the companies are obliged to provide information to the Single Registry of Beneficial Owners (RUB) and update it in case of any changes, including the taxpayer identification number, the names of the beneficial owners, country of nationality, etc.

Per one of the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), “the countries must ensure that there is adequate, accurate and timely information on the tax beneficiaries and the control over the legal persons so that the respective authorities could obtain or have timely access.”

Sanctions in Case of Violations of the New Resolutions

DIAN also introduced a number of sanctions for the companies, which fail to provide proper information to the said register or do not update their corporate details, if necessary.

Among the other steps, which will be taken in this new phase II of the anti-money laundering system, as per the FATF’s recommendations, are:

• the presentation of the new technologies of SARLAFT 4.0, a monitoring and surveillance system;
• the regulation of the virtual asset service providers (VASPs), which is included in SAGRILAFT 3.0, a regulation on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing;
• Resolution 314 from 2021 of UIAF, requires the VASPs to submit suspicious transaction reports as well as reports on individual or multiple transactions made with virtual assets.

Earlier, Coljuegos and the Government of Quindío signed the first pact for the legality of gambling and games of chance for 2022. With these pacts of legality, Coljuegos aims to raise public awareness about the importance of gambling legally and safely.

In March, the Colombian gambling regulator led three control operations related to illegal gambling activities.