397 Items Seized in a Single Popayán Operation: Public Enforcement After Coljuegos’ New President Takes Office

Official Coljuegos news image of the seizure operation in Popayán. Image source: Coljuegos.

Official Coljuegos news image announcing Jaime Vives Pinedo’s appointment as president. Image source: Coljuegos.

On October 20, Bogotá time, Coljuegos, Colombia’s state enterprise administering the monopoly on games of luck and chance, issued Bulletin No. 038: working with the military Gaula, it seized 397 items of unauthorised land-based gambling equipment in Popayán, the capital of Cauca department. The bulletin estimates that this type of illegal operation deprives the country’s subsidised healthcare system of approximately 210 million pesos in annual contributions.

The bulletin does not identify brands, establishments or suspects. Its emphasis is fiscal: every machine operating outside the licensing system means money that should be going towards healthcare subsidies is not reaching its destination. For a regulator and operator whose slogan equates legal gambling with betting on the nation’s health, that angle is unsurprising.

Just Three Weeks After the Leadership Change

The same institution had issued another press release on October 2, announcing that Jaime Vives Pinedo had taken office as Coljuegos president. The release cited “Decree No. 1430 of 2026” as the basis for his appointment and quoted his pledge to strengthen the fight against illegal gambling, protect concession-fee revenues and increase income for the healthcare system.

The decree number needs to be checked against the original. Both the filename and the text of the PDF published by the Presidency identify it as “Decree No. 1480 of October 1, 2026” (Decreto No. 1480 del 1 de octubre de 2026): it accepts Marco Emilio Hincapié Ramírez’s resignation and appoints Jaime Gregorio Vives Pinedo as Coljuegos president. The official gazette’s text for the same day also gives the number as 1480. The “1430” in the Coljuegos press release conflicts with the original presidential decree. The presidential PDF and the official gazette should take precedence; the press release contains a typographical error.

Hincapié had held the position since July 2023. Public reports differ on where he went after leaving office, and this article has not independently verified that point. Vives’ public career history is primarily in private-sector management. The Coljuegos press release says he has more than thirty years of management experience; reports by El Tiempo, Portafolio and others add his age, a business administration degree from Santo Tomás University and positions at companies in the Caribbean region. The press release does not say whether he has a background in gambling regulation.

One Operation, Two Threads

Reading the October 2 leadership change alongside the October 20 seizure provides a management-related thread, not an established causal relationship. The new president’s press release emphasised “combating illegality”; three weeks later, the bulletin described a specific land-based enforcement operation. Whether other operations took place in between is unclear: this search of the official website did not locate a complete list.

For industry readers, the figures themselves may be more useful: 397 items of equipment and an estimated 210 million pesos in annual healthcare contributions evaded. These are the magnitudes supplied by the regulator itself, providing a basis for comparison with reports of raids in other cities. Bulletin No. 038 does not elaborate on the equipment’s eventual disposal or whether the matter will enter criminal proceedings.

Sources

• Coljuegos Bulletin No. 038 (Popayán seizure, October 20, 2026): https://www.coljuegos.gov.co/publicaciones/307397/coljuegos-incauto-397-elementos-de-juegos-de-suerte-y-azar-ilegales-en-popayan/
• Coljuegos press release (Vives takes office, October 2, 2026): https://www.coljuegos.gov.co/publicaciones/307392/jaime-vives-pinedo-nuevo-presidente-de-coljuegos/
• Presidency, Decree No. 1480 PDF (October 1, 2026; downloading the direct link failed when this article was written, so the decree number was checked against excerpts of the PDF text returned by a search tool and the official gazette’s reproduction): https://dapre.presidencia.gov.co/normativa/normativa/DECRETO%20No.%201480%20DEL%201%20DE%20OCTUBRE%20DE%202026.pdf
• El Tiempo report on the appointment: https://www.eltiempo.com/politica/gobierno/presidente-abelardo-de-la-espriella-nombra-a-jaime-gregorio-vives-pinedo-como-nuevo-presidente-de-coljuegos-tras-la-renuncia-de-marco-emilio-hincapie-3590643
• Note: The Coljuegos press release gives the decree number as 1430, which does not match the Presidency’s original Decree No. 1480. The discrepancy is identified in the article.