Coljuegos says Bogotá raid seized 180 illegal items and led to three arrests

Colombia's gambling regulator Coljuegos said that, working with Bogotá's district finance and security secretariat, the National Police and Migración Colombia, it raided two establishments in the Los Mártires locality of Bogotá and seized 180 unauthorized gaming items.

The operation was announced in Bulletin No. 041, dated and published on November 13, 2026. Coljuegos said the items were operating without authorization as localized games and as internet-operated novel games. It listed 40 electronic slot machines, four casino tables, one eight-seat roulette wheel, 13 sports-betting modules and parts used to manufacture or repair slot machines.

The regulator said three people were arrested, including two foreign nationals of Slovak origin, and that they are to be prosecuted for illicit exercise of the rent monopoly over games of chance and fortune. They could face six to eight years in prison, a sanction of 500 to 1,000 monthly legal minimum wages, and a Coljuegos process that can add a fine and a five-year operating ban, the bulletin said. The people arrested were not named. The headline refers to "ciudadanos eslovenos" (Slovenian citizens), while the body describes the two foreigners as "de origen eslovaco" (of Slovak origin); this account follows the body of the official text.

Coljuegos said the illegal operation had been failing to transfer more than 78 billion pesos a year to Colombia's subsidized health system. President Jaime Vives Pinedo said the agency was "directing all its efforts to impact these structures and dismantle their operation definitively." The agency invited confidential reports to denunciealilegal@coljuegos.gov.co.

The raid follows other recent Coljuegos actions, including a November 12 fine and five-year ban and earlier field seizures after Vives took office.