internationalcasinoreview ISO Winner in Columbia News SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA


Winner Group-Cirsa Columbia has obtained ISO 9001 certification for all 21 of its casinos in five major cities in Columbia. The company first achieved the management processes standard for its Bogotá venues in 2006 and has maintained and built on it ever since, to include its Rio, Hollywood Café, Broadway and Rock’n Jazz brands. It is now working on certification for 47 casinos it acquired last May, brands that include Caribbean, Havana, Real Game, Circus and Tropical.


Casino operators fear criminalisation under reform bill


anotherway ECUADOR


When the new law is finally enacted, it will mean a big increase for Costa Rican Casinos such as Casino Club Colonial in San José


Costa Rica puts gambling tax legislation on hold


A plan to raise more money from casinos and other gaming operators in the Central American state of Costa Rica has hit the buffers, while questions of who will regulate gambling and who will collect the tax are sorted out.


richpickings COSTA RICA


A bill that would amend the gaming laws in Costa Rica and impose a 15 per cent profits tax on gaming com- panies has been withdrawn temporarily by the govern- ment after getting rough treatment in parliament and facing strong criticism from the current regulator. The proposed tax could


raise 30m colón (around E46,000). However, in addi- tion, the bill proposes that the Interior Ministry takes over responsibility for regu- lation from the JPS (the Social Protection Board). The JPS managed to get enough support to persuade


the Minister for the Presi- dency Marco Vargas to look at the legislation again. Head of the JPS, Francisco


Ibarra, said: “The bill affects this body because it removes from us the administration of gambling, from lotteries to bingo.” Former Finance Minister and deputy chairman of the finance committee Guillermo Zúñiga has already questioned the ability of the Finance Min- istry to collect the tax prop- erly. “The Finance Ministry will control the tax but it now looks like the collec- tion will be in the hands of the Interior Ministry, and that changes the focus of the plan.”


Parliamentary deputy


Gustavo Aris of the Citizen’s Action Party warned that the plan had no future. “This tax is not viable. It’s a tax that looks like it will not favour anyone; it’s a plan that appears to legalise capital from dubious sources and it undermines the JPS. There will have to be a lot of amendments.” However, on the other side of the political argu- ment, the head of the Chris- tian Social Union Party, Walter Cespedes criticised the Executive both for the manner of the withdrawal of the bill and for the reasons, saying it had been a key element of the govern- ments plans to alleviate


issues of public safety. “In the country there is a


feeling there is a lack of money for public safety, public works and a lot of other things we need,” he told Minister Vargas. “This is what this bill was for. Why did you withdraw it?” Vargas said he hoped he


would be able to bring the bill back to parliament soon and that it could be dis- cussed without too much disruption. He said: “It should be clear that the bill will be put forward again in the short term because, as we have said, it is of utmost importance for this country as the resources generated will be used for public safety.


The owners and operators of 32 casinos currently oper- ating legally in top-class luxury hotels in Ecuador have said a draft law regulat- ing gambling could crimi- nalise the sector, which contributed around US$2m (E1.5m) to government coffers in 2009. As is stands, the criminal justice bill put forward by President Rafael Correa pro- poses that anyone who sets up venues where any kind of gaming takes place, would be sentenced to two to four years in prison and a fine of 100 to 500 times the minimum wage. It makes no distinction between casinos, which can currently have up to 280 gaming machines governed by legal technical standards that have been in place since 2008, and gaming halls that operate in secret, often in garages and basements, with sometimes up to 5,000 machines. The proposals include all


venues that aim to make a profit from gambling: the prohibition will extend to all games in which stakes and prizes are involved,


whether they use cards, dice or roulette wheels, whether they are mechanical, electro- mechanical or electronic. Correa is unlikely to give a sympathetic ear to the casinos; he announced his plans to “declare Ecuador free of these types of games” in June last year. He has already stated that the reforms will apply to all sectors, including the five- star hotels with casinos on their premises. He said: “Many of these games and casinos are funded by inter- national mafias who launder international money.” On November 5 last year,


law on the prevention, detec- tion and eradication of money laundering was passed by the parliament: the text legalised casinos, betting, bingo and slot machines and requires all operators to report their activities to the Financial Analysis Unit. Despite the president’s


apparent desire still to ban all gaming, there is a para- graph in the Gambling Control Bill that signals instead a strict regime of reg- ulation steered by a Com- mission of Gambling Control comprised of representa- tives from three ministries.


President Rafael Correa seems intent on following the example of Russia and criminalising all forms of gaming


Peru completes machine-linking process


wellconnected PERU


A three-year process to formalise the status of all slot halls in Peru is now complete, the regulating Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism has announced. All legal gaming machines are now connected to a central computer for the purposes of monitoring and control - and for the collection of taxes. The Minster Eduardo Ferreyros Küppers


32 February 2011 • south&centralamericanews


said: “In 2007, only four per cent of these facilities were formal. We have reversed this situation dramatically, so that now we have concluded the formalisation process for the sector, authorising slot halls that comply with the law and closing those that have not shown compliance.” He continued: “We have also reached a


Non-compliant machines were destroyed by the Peruvian authorities


record high in the collection of gambling tax, which thanks to the integrity of the payments exceeded 185m soles (E51m) - that’s an increase of 300 per cent compared to 2006.” As a result of its achievement, Ferreyros also announced that the ministry had been awarded a prize for Best Practice in Public Management by the Ciudadanos al Día organisation.


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