Poker liquidity sharing postponed in Colombia

Despite publishing a draft decree in November to promote an international poker liquidity sharing pool, the project has been abandoned.

Colombia.- Colombia is undoubtedly the most thriving market in Latin America over the last few years, and regulation changes have caused the industry to look its way. However, one regulatory change that won’t be happening soon is the creation of an international poker liquidity sharing pool, which regulator Coljuegos has postponed despite publishing a draft decree to develop it.

“That proposed regulation was put forward by Coljuegos. However, it was stopped because there were many issues regarding the potential risks on the control of cash and the players abroad,” gaming trade body Fecoljuegos president Evert Montero Cárdenas said. During an interview with iGaming Business, he explained that the project set to make Colombia “even more competitive” has been abandoned.

The country has already established regulation to get the online betting industry to develop just before the FIFA World Cup and could’ve developed a liquidity sharing pool if concerns over how to control it wouldn’t have surged.

“The proposal regarding international liquidity did not offer any benefits to the national operators, it rather favoured the big international companies, as one of the requirements was that Colombian players could play on websites that had been authorised in the country and abroad, and only big companies have the capacity to comply with this requirement as many of them already hold licences to operate in Colombia and other countries,” Montero detailed.