Coljuegos is the state entity that licenses and polices every real-money gambling operator in Colombia — casinos, sportsbooks, bingo, poker — and it answers directly to the Ministry of Finance. In February 2025, it opened investigations into 35 influencers for promoting unlicensed gambling and raffles on social media, and by mid-2026 it had issued more than 46,000 block requests against unlicensed gambling sites and social profiles. This isn’t a hypothetical compliance risk written up for operators. It’s documented enforcement against promoters, and it’s the reason this guide starts here instead of with a definition of Coljuegos.

Every top-ranking Colombia gambling article — the ones written for operators deciding whether to apply for a concession — buries this. This one doesn’t, because if you’re running or about to run Colombia traffic, the question that matters isn’t how do I get licensed. It’s is this specific offer actually legal to promote, and what happens to me if I get it wrong. That’s what the next section answers.

Two Different Risks, Two Different Regulators

Media buyers running Colombia traffic conflate operator risk and affiliate risk because both trace back to the same market. They shouldn’t — the two run on separate legal bases, with separate enforcement bodies, and only one of them is actually about you.

Operator risk sits with Coljuegos; affiliate and influencer risk sits with SIC

Operator risk: Coljuegos and the state monopoly

Promoting or operating gambling without a Coljuegos concession triggers administrative sanctions under Articles 4 and 44 of Law 643 of 2001, which frame games of chance as a state fiscal monopoly (a renta monopolística whose proceeds are earmarked for public health funding). Operating outside that framework is treated as unlawful interference with the monopoly itself, not just an unlicensed-business problem. This is the legal basis Coljuegos uses when it blocks a domain or fines an operator — and it’s the risk every operator-focused competitor article covers in depth.

Affiliate and influencer risk: a separate law, a separate regulator

Promoting gambling as an affiliate or influencer doesn’t fall under Law 643 at all. It falls under the Consumer Protection Statute — Law 1480 of 2011, Article 61 — and the body with jurisdiction isn’t Coljuegos. It’s the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC), Colombia’s consumer-protection and competition authority. That’s a different legal instrument, a different regulator, and a different theory of harm: not monopoly interference, but misleading or unauthorized commercial promotion aimed at consumers.

The 35-influencer investigation from the opening is the concrete shape of this risk. Coljuegos flagged the accounts; the exposure for the individuals involved runs through consumer-protection law, not gambling law. If you’re running paid social or influencer placements into Colombia, this is the statute that applies to you specifically — not the one that applies to the operator you’re promoting.

Colombia’s Licensed Market: Current Status

Metric	Detail
Regulator	Coljuegos, established 2011
Legal basis	Law 643/2001 + 2016 eGaming regulations, consolidated under Acuerdo 8 of 2020
Licensed online operators	15 as of end of May 2026 (MrYoker was the 15th, concession contract C2261 of 2026)
Healthcare-fund contributions	COP 253.224 billion collected in 2026 as of the most recent report; Coljuegos projects this will exceed COP 450 billion by year-end

On the operator count: this guide treats 15 as the current, better-sourced figure. Multiple 2026 outlets — Yogonet, InterGame, Sector del Juego, and Coljuegos’ own site — independently confirm 15 authorized operators following MrYoker’s May 2026 concession (C2261 of 2026). An earlier count circulating from a different tracker put the figure at 16 “as of 2024,” published August 2025. This brief doesn’t resolve that discrepancy by assumption — a count moving from 16 to 15 would imply a net loss of licenses (revocation, non-renewal, or consolidation), which no source reviewed here explains. Pull the current number directly from Coljuegos’ own registry before publishing anything that depends on an exact count.

The Tax Timeline: Five Moves in Thirteen Months

This is the section every competitor article gets wrong by stating a single rate. There hasn’t been a single rate. There have been five changes to how Colombia taxes online gambling since February 2025, and the mechanism — not just the number — has changed twice.

Five tax events, thirteen months, two different tax mechanisms

Feb 2025 — Decree 175: A temporary 19% VAT on player deposits, introduced under emergency powers tied to the Catatumbo security crisis.

Dec 2025: Congress’s Senate Fourth Committee rejects the government’s Financing Bill, which would have made the deposit VAT permanent.

Dec 31, 2025 — Decree 1390: The government shifts the VAT’s taxable base from deposits to Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), keeping the rate at 19%.

Jan 29, 2026: The Constitutional Court provisionally suspends Decree 1390, returning operators to the baseline 15% GGR tax.

~April 2026 — Ruling C-079: The Court strikes the decree down in full and unanimously, ruling the executive exceeded its emergency powers on a budgetary measure that belongs in Congress.

March 12, 2026 — Decree 0240: A different legal instrument: a 16% national consumption tax on gambling deposits, tied to flood-emergency powers rather than VAT law. In effect since publication, and — per SBC News reporting from April 2026 — still the framework Congress was reviewing for its constitutional footing months after it took effect.

July 20, 2026: Days before leaving office, the outgoing Petro administration files a bill to make a 19% VAT on online gambling permanent via ordinary legislation, effective 2027 — explicitly to avoid relying on emergency decrees again. Odds are uncertain: Colombia held presidential elections on May 31, 2026, and Congress has already rejected two earlier attempts at this same permanent VAT.

The two decrees don’t even use the same tax mechanism — Decree 1390 was a VAT, Decree 0240 is a consumption tax under Article 512-1 of the tax code. That distinction is why Decree 0240 survived where Decree 1390 didn’t: it’s structured as a periodic, bimonthly-declared levy on operators rather than a per-transaction charge triggered at the moment of deposit, which was the design the Court called potentially irreversible.

Verify the currently active rate and mechanism directly with Coljuegos or a licensed operator’s own disclosures before modeling payouts. This brief was compiled in August 2026; as of the most recent reporting reviewed, the 16% consumption tax under Decree 0240 was the operative charge on deposits, layered on top of the baseline 15–17% GGR tax and 1% administrative fee — bringing the effective burden on operators well above 30% of GGR by some industry estimates. The permanent-19%-VAT bill filed in July 2026 has not been enacted as of this writing. Given the rate has changed three times in the last thirteen months, treat anything printed here as a snapshot, not a constant.

How to Verify an Offer’s License Before You Send Traffic

A GEO tag that says “LatAm” or even “Colombia” on an offer wall confirms nothing. Coljuegos licenses specific legal entities against specific domains, and the list changes — MrYoker wasn’t authorized until May 2026. Here’s the actual verification sequence.

1. Pull the current registry from Coljuegos directly. Coljuegos publishes and updates its list of authorized online operators on coljuegos.gov.co. This is the only source that reflects additions and removals in real time — third-party trackers lag, and some (see the 15-vs-16 discrepancy above) are simply out of date.

2. Match the domain, not the brand name. Operators sometimes run multiple front-end domains or rebrand. Confirm the exact URL in your tracking link matches a domain tied to an active concession contract — not just that the brand name sounds familiar.

3. Ask the network manager for the concession contract number. Every licensed operator has a public concession number (Coljuegos’ own materials cite examples like Wplay’s 2182, BetPlay’s 1876, Betsson/Colbet’s 1895, and MrYoker’s C2261 of 2026). If a network manager can’t produce this number for a Colombia offer, that’s your answer.

4. Treat a vague offer description as a red flag, not an oversight. “LatAm GEO, high payouts” on an offer wall is marketing copy, not licensing confirmation. If the network can’t point to the specific Coljuegos registration behind a Colombia offer, don’t run it — the enforcement precedent from the opening section applies to you, not just to the operator.

Match the concession-contract number, not the domain name or a generic GEO tag

Advertising and Influencer Rules

• Marketing spend cap: licensed operators may spend up to 20% of projected GGR on marketing and promotion — a ceiling that shapes how aggressively operators can bid for affiliate traffic.
• Sponsorships: deals with Colombian sports teams are restricted to licensed operators only.
• Targeting restrictions: advertising to self-excluded players or minors is prohibited across the board.

Google Ads: what’s confirmed

Colombia is on Google’s certified-country list for both categories relevant to iGaming affiliates, confirmed directly against Google’s current Advertising Policies Help page as of this writing:

• Social casino games — Colombia sits in Group 1, alongside Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.
• Real-money online gambling and gambling-promoting content — Colombia has its own country-specific certification row, covering slot/chance machines, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, bingo, poker, and sports betting, plus a separate allowance for aggregator/affiliate content. The requirement in both cases: the operator behind the promoted content must be registered with Coljuegos and hold a valid license — Google’s policy language names Coljuegos specifically.

This matters for affiliate content specifically: Google explicitly permits aggregator and comparison sites promoting Colombia gambling offers, but only where the promoted operators carry the required Coljuegos license — the certification doesn’t bypass the underlying legal requirement, it enforces it.

Affiliate Verticals Beyond iGaming

Colombia isn’t a one-vertical market, and gambling-focused competitor content rarely looks past it. Here’s what’s confirmed for adjacent verticals — and, just as importantly, what isn’t.

iGaming (already covered in depth above)

One structural note worth flagging here: Colombia’s single license covers sports betting, online casino, poker, and bingo under one regime, with card rooms prohibited and lotteries kept as a separate state monopoly. That’s structurally different from Ecuador, where sports betting and other verticals split into separate regulatory tracks — see AFFStudio’s Ecuador GEO profile for the comparison.

Nutra / health — a genuine compliance gate competitors skip

Health-product advertising is regulated by INVIMA, Colombia’s food and drug authority. OTC health products require pre-approval before their ads can run; prescription products can’t be advertised to the general public at all. Approved OTC ads must carry mandatory disclosure language — identifying the product as a medicine, stating not to exceed the recommended dose, and directing consumers to see a doctor if symptoms persist. None of the gambling-focused Colombia competitor content covers this, which makes it a real differentiator if you’re running nutra alongside iGaming in this GEO.

Finance / fintech

This is backed by real transaction-volume data, not a guess: PSE handles roughly 48% of Colombia’s digital transactions, and Nequi/Daviplata wallet adoption is growing quickly. That infrastructure supports remittance, BNPL, and digital-banking offers with real payment rails behind them, not just a generic LatAm assumption.

E-commerce

A large, growing market — one payments-industry source puts Colombian digital payments volume above USD 12 billion with a reported ~22% CAGR through 2026. That figure carries a baseline-year caveat this brief didn’t independently verify; pull a fresher number from the original source before publishing a number that specific.

Dating and crypto — no Colombia-specific data confirmed

This brief did not turn up reliable Colombia-specific volume, payout benchmarks, or platform-popularity data for either vertical. Say that plainly rather than reusing a generic LatAm dating or crypto playbook and presenting it as locally verified — a reader running these verticals deserves to know the gap exists.

Payments and What They Mean for Your Funnel

PSE dominates transaction volume; Nequi, Daviplata, and Efecty fill different gaps

PSE (bank transfer) handles roughly 48% of digital transactions and can take up to 21 minutes to process — a delay window that matters for how you frame post-click expectations. Nequi and Daviplata are the dominant digital wallets, with fast-growing adoption. Efecty is the cash network that reaches unbanked users, still a meaningful share of the population outside major cities.

For landing pages and funnel design, this means: don’t default to a card-first checkout flow built for a Tier-1 GEO. PSE and Nequi need to be front and center, not buried as secondary options, and copy around PSE should set expectations about processing time rather than promising instant deposits.

Colombia vs. Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru

Tax-regime instability is Colombia’s standout weakness versus its regional peers

Dimension	Colombia	Brazil	Ecuador	Peru
Affiliate advertising requires licensing	Yes — tied to the promoted operator’s Coljuegos license	Partial — operator licensing required, affiliate rules still maturing	Yes — operator-level licensing applies	Yes — operator-level licensing applies
Ad-platform availability (Google Ads)	Certified for both online gambling and social casino	Certified for online gambling (lotteries, horse racing, fixed-odds, DFS)	Certification more limited by product type	Certified for online gambling, lotteries need extra MIMP sign-off
Tax-regime stability	Unstable — five changes in 13 months, two different tax mechanisms	Comparatively more settled, though under periodic review	More stable framework	More stable framework

For the country-level detail behind Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, see AFFStudio’s dedicated GEO profiles for each market.

Traffic Formats That Actually Convert

Format	Why it works in Colombia
Push	Cheap volume, strong for re-engagement around football fixtures and betting promos tied to match days.
Popunder	Still delivers at scale for casino and sportsbook offers where the click-to-deposit path is short.
Native	Higher-intent placements work well for content-led affiliate sites doing the Coljuegos-verification angle this guide covers.
Telegram	Fast-growing channel for tipster and promo-code communities tied to specific operators.

Anchor creative to Colombian football culture — the national team and Copa América cycles — the same way Brazil profiles anchor to football’s 78–86% share of betting turnover there. Match-day spikes in search and social interest are where push and native placements around sports betting offers see the clearest lift.

Pre-Launch Checklist

• Verify the specific offer’s license directly with the network — get the concession contract number, don’t accept a generic GEO tag.
• Model unit economics against the current tax rate, not last quarter’s — this GEO has changed its tax mechanism twice in thirteen months.
• Build the funnel around PSE and Nequi as primary payment options, not card-first.
• Check Google’s current gambling policy page before running paid social or search — certification status and requirements can shift.
• If you’re running nutra alongside iGaming here, confirm INVIMA pre-approval status before publishing any OTC health claim.

Key Takeaways

• Operator risk and affiliate/influencer risk run on separate legal bases in Colombia — Law 643/2001 for operators (Coljuegos), Law 1480/2011 Art. 61 for promoters (SIC) — and the 35-influencer investigation from February 2025 is the concrete precedent for the second one.
• Colombia’s gambling tax has changed five times since February 2025 and switched mechanisms twice (VAT to consumption tax); verify the current rate before modeling payouts.
• 15 operators hold active Coljuegos concessions as of end of May 2026 — but a conflicting 16-operator figure exists from an older source, so pull the live number from Coljuegos’ own registry.
• Google Ads currently certifies Colombia for both real-money online gambling and social casino games, with Coljuegos licensing as the underlying requirement in both cases.
• PSE and Nequi aren’t optional payment add-ons in this market — PSE alone handles roughly half of digital transactions, and funnels built card-first will underperform.

FAQ

Is online gambling legal in Colombia in 2026?

Yes, for licensed operators. Colombia has regulated online gambling since 2016 under Coljuegos, and 15 operators currently hold active concessions covering sports betting, online casino, poker, and bingo. Gambling with or promoting an unlicensed operator is not legal, regardless of how the offer is marketed.

Do I need a Coljuegos license to promote gambling offers in Colombia?

Not directly — affiliates and influencers aren’t the ones licensed by Coljuegos. But promoting an unlicensed operator exposes you to a separate legal risk under the Consumer Protection Statute (Law 1480/2011, Art. 61), enforced by the SIC. Practically: only promote operators that hold a verified, current Coljuegos concession.

What happened to Colombia’s 19% gambling tax?

It’s had a turbulent run. Introduced as an emergency 19% VAT on deposits in February 2025, rejected as a permanent measure by Congress in December 2025, reissued on GGR in late December 2025, suspended by the Constitutional Court in January 2026, and struck down entirely by April 2026. A different 16% consumption tax (Decree 0240) took its place in March 2026, and the outgoing government filed a bill in July 2026 to bring back a permanent 19% VAT starting 2027. Verify the currently active rate before modeling any payout.

Can affiliates or influencers get in trouble for promoting unlicensed gambling in Colombia?

Yes — this isn’t theoretical. Coljuegos investigated 35 influencers for promoting unlicensed gambling and raffles in February 2025, and has issued over 46,000 block requests against unlicensed sites and social profiles. The legal basis for affiliate/influencer exposure runs through the SIC under consumer-protection law, separate from the licensing law that applies to operators.