Online Poker in Colombia — Coljuegos, the Closed-Liquidity Model, and Where Different Product Categories Sit

Colombia at a glance

Quick reference for the current landscape. Every row below has more detail in the sections that follow.

The federal framework — Coljuegos, Law 643, and Acuerdo 08

Colombian online-gambling law has a clean federal architecture. Coljuegos is the sole national regulator under Law 643 of 2001, which established the state monopoly on games of chance. The current operative regulation for online-operated games is Acuerdo 08 of 29 September 2020, which consolidated the foundational Acuerdo 04 of 2016 and its 2019–2020 amendments into a single regulatory text. The framework is mature, the regulator is active, and the licensing process is well-established — five years of operating concessions plus a transition track for renewals. The tax framework is the single area of active flux as of April 2026.

Colombia was the first Latin-American country to license online gambling under a unified federal framework.Acuerdo 04 of 24 May 2016 took effect in mid-2016, and the first concession contract — Aquila Global Group's wplay.co, C1741 — was issued in mid-2017. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru all developed their own online-gambling frameworks subsequently; Colombia's six-year head start makes Coljuegos the most institutionally mature Spanish-language regulator in the region.

The skill-vs-chance debate is unresolved at the high-court level.Poker is regulated as a juego de suerte y azar (game of chance) under Acuerdo 08 of 2020, classified within the modalidad novedoso de tipo juegos operados por internet category alongside sports betting, slots, and other internet-delivered games. Players and a small academic body have argued that poker should be classified as a skill game and protected as a sport, citing comparative jurisprudence including the Madras High Court's November 2023 skill-game ruling in India. Neither the Corte Constitucional nor the Consejo de Estado has issued a ruling reclassifying online poker as a game of pure skill. Until that changes, Coljuegos' classification governs and the licensing framework applies regardless of the skill-game argument.

The closed-liquidity model — the structural fact that defines the market

Coljuegos enforces a closed-liquidity regime by regulation. Only Colombian-resident KYC-verified players with COP-denominated wallets at the same operator may sit at the same table. There are no cross-border player pools and no operator-to-operator liquidity sharing. The regulator publicly explored international shared liquidity with France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain in late 2018 but executed a U-turn citing player-fund-control risks. The closed-liquidity rule has remained in place since.

This rule explains the structural shape of the Colombian market more than any other single fact. A closed pool of approximately fifty million Colombians — of whom only a small fraction are active online-poker players in any given week — is too thin to sustain a competitive multi-operator peer-to-peer poker ecosystem. The economic consequence is operator concentration: most Coljuegos-licensed operators concentrate their product investment in sportsbook and casino verticals (which scale better in a closed pool), and only one operator (BetPlay, concession C1876) has invested in a true peer-to-peer poker product as of April 2026.

The closed-liquidity rule is also why GGPoker, PokerStars, and ACR Poker are absent from the Colombian licensed market.PokerStars exited Colombia on 17 July 2017 rather than apply under closed-liquidity rules — the brand's value proposition rests on global liquidity. GGPoker has not pursued a Coljuegos licence and self-blocks Colombian-resident registrations. ACR Poker self-blocks Colombia. The international mainstream brands have decided that the cost of building a Colombia-only walled product exceeds the revenue ceiling of a closed pool. The structural consequence: Colombian players seeking the international liquidity of GGPoker, PokerStars, or ACR have to look outside the federally-licensed segment — typically into private club-based platforms (ClubGG, PPPoker, Suprema, PokerBros) operating under different jurisdictional architectures.

Licensed operator landscape — the fifteen Coljuegos concessions

Coljuegos publishes the full list of active concession holders at coljuegos.gov.co. As of April 2026, fifteen brands hold active concessions covering sportsbook, casino, and (for a smaller subset) online poker. Every brand operates on a .co domain through a Colombian-incorporated entity with COP-denominated wallets, mandatory KYC, and PSE bank-rail integration. The table below covers the full list with concession numbers and product mix.

BetPlay — the only confirmed peer-to-peer online-poker room

BetPlay (Corredor Empresarial S.A., concession C1876)is the only Coljuegos-licensed operator that publicly markets a true peer-to-peer online-poker room with cash games and tournaments as of April 2026. The product is powered by EvenBet Gaming under Malta licensure, certified by iTech Labs and GLI, and offers Texas Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha at five-handed and six-handed tables, scheduled tournaments, and a Bad Beat Jackpot promotion. Wplay (the first-issued operator) historically referenced poker in its product mix; FullReto opened a poker product briefly in 2024 then closed it. The other twelve licensees focus on sportsbook and casino verticals.

Stake.com.co — concession C2226 of 2025

Stake Colombia S.A.S. holds Coljuegos concession contract C2226 of 2025.The licence was renewed on 30 December 2025 from the predecessor C1751 and runs for five years through 29 December 2030. The brand operates on the stake.com.co domain under the Coljuegos federal-licensing framework, separate from the international stake.com platform (which holds Curaçao licensure under OGL/2024/1451/0918). Stake's Colombian Terms and Conditions cite Acuerdo 8 de 2020 alongside the C2226 contract, confirming the operative regulatory frame. The Colombian skin's product mix is sportsbook plus casino; whether the international stake.com poker product will be deployed on the Colombian skin is an open commercial question as of April 2026.

Deep Poker is also an official agent for Stake.com.co under its Coljuegos C2226 licence, in addition to and separate from the ClubGG / private-club path that anchors Deep's product surface globally. The club-side path (ClubGG via Massiv, TMT, and TiNY Poker) remains the primary product focus across the Deep Poker surface; Stake.com.co is a parallel option for Colombian-resident players who prefer the federally-licensed regulated-domestic route under the Coljuegos framework.

Notable absences — GGPoker, PokerStars, ACR Poker

None of the major international mainstream poker brands hold Colombian concessions. PokerStars exited Colombia on 17 July 2017 rather than build a closed-liquidity product. GGPoker self-blocks Colombian-resident registrations and has not pursued a Coljuegos licence; the brand's published restricted-jurisdictions list includes Colombia. ACR Poker self-blocks Colombia. The closed-liquidity rule is the structural reason for these absences, as discussed in the previous section.

1xBet — enforcement-target context only

1xBet does not hold a Colombian licence and operates as an unauthorised brand from the Coljuegos perspective.The named February 2025 enforcement operation blocked 242 1xBet sites, 141 1Win sites, 19 BBRBET sites, and 3 Pinnacle sites — Coljuegos president Marco Emilio Hincapié stated at the time, “Estamos luchando de frente contra estas marcas que insisten en ofertar apuestas de manera ilegal.” 1xBet appears in this educational reference only as enforcement-target context; it is not a Deep-supported play option for Colombian-resident players, and the page does not provide any guidance on accessing it.

Enforcement reality — operator-targeted, three vectors

Coljuegos' enforcement model is concentrated on three vectors: operator-blocking, tax recovery via Article 312 criminal exposure, and influencer-side enforcement against social-media accounts that promote unauthorised platforms. The pattern across the post-2016 enforcement era has been consistent: action against operators, payment processors, and facilitators; absence of public action against individual recreational players.

Operator-blocking via MinTIC Circular Externa 0017 of 23 April 2025. The Circular codifies the procedure by which Coljuegos may request DNS and IP blocks against unauthorised gambling sites, applications, and digital channels. Internet service providers operating public networks under Law 1341 of 2009 are instructed to enforce blocks at the carrier level. Enforcement scale: Coljuegos has executed approximately 26,600 cumulative blocking orders across the regulator's history, including approximately 10,000 in 2024 alone. The named February 2025 operation (Coljuegos Bulletin 007) blocked 409 sites in a single action.

Tax recovery and Article 312 criminal exposure. Penal Code Article 312 as amended by Law 1393 of 2010 makes organising, operating, or facilitating unauthorised games of chance punishable by 6–8 years imprisonment plus a fine of 500–1,000 monthly minimum wages. The provision targets operators and facilitators by its terms. No publicly reported cases of Colombian players being criminally prosecuted under Article 312 for using offshore unlicensed operators have been located in the public case record.

Influencer-side enforcement. Coljuegos in 2025 expanded enforcement to request blocking of social-media accounts that promote unauthorised gambling platforms. This is a structural shift in Colombian enforcement: marketing surfaces — not just operator surfaces — are now in scope. Influencers promoting offshore brands without Coljuegos authorisation have been the subject of platform-takedown requests; the practical effect is that affiliate-style promotion of unauthorised operators carries publisher-side risk in Colombia distinct from player-side risk.

Crypto rails — partial regulation, LATAM-leading stablecoin adoption

Colombia operates under a partial-regulation crypto framework: cryptocurrency is not legal tender, the SFC sandbox completed without producing comprehensive rules, and a unified VASP statute is pending in Congress as of April 2026. Despite the partial-regulation posture, Colombia is the LATAM country with the highest stablecoin share of crypto activity per Chainalysis 2025.

Banco de la República, SFC, and the laArenera sandbox

Banco de la República has affirmed that cryptocurrency is not legal tender, not money, and not foreign currency under Colombian law. The central bank's role is monetary-policy warnings rather than direct crypto regulation. The Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) prohibits SFC-supervised financial institutions from holding, investing in, or intermediating with cryptocurrencies in their core business. The laArenera regulatory sandbox ran from 29 September 2021 through approximately June 2024 with seven authorised bank-exchange partnerships including Bancolombia–Gemini, Banco de Bogotá–Bitso, Davivienda–Binance, and Movii–Panda. The pilot tested cash-in / cash-out functionality between bank rails and exchange platforms; it ended without comprehensive regulatory output.

Wenia and the COPW stablecoin

On 3 May 2024, Bancolombia launched Wenia, a retail crypto platform offering BTC, ETH, MATIC, and USDC custody plus the bank-issued COPW stablecoin(1:1 backed by Colombian peso, deployed on the Polygon network with Chainlink Proof-of-Reserves integration, holding a Class F licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority). Wenia is the first major bank-issued retail crypto rail in Latin America. The strategic significance: Bancolombia-group customers now have native bank-rail access to crypto custody and a peso-pegged stablecoin without leaving the bank's product surface.

VASP regulation — Bill 510 of 2025 and DIAN Resolution 000240 of 2025

Bill 510 of 2025 introduces a comprehensive Virtual Asset Service Providers framework in Colombian Congress (introduced March 2025). Status as of April 2026: pending; no enacted law has been located. DIAN Resolution 000240 of 24 December 2025 imposes detailed reporting obligations on Virtual Asset Service Providers for the 2026 tax year — mandatory reporting of user account ownership, transaction volumes, and net balances. UIAF reporting applies via the SIREL platform: any crypto transaction over USD 150 triggers full sender / recipient reporting; VASPs must submit Suspicious Transaction Reports (ROS) and monthly absence-of-suspicion reports (AROS).

The LATAM stablecoin leader — 66% per Chainalysis 2025

Per the Chainalysis 2025 LATAM Crypto Adoption report, Colombia has the highest stablecoin share of crypto activity in LATAM at 66% of transactions — ahead of Argentina (61.8%), Brazil (59.8%), and Venezuela (56.4%). Colombia ranks fifth in LATAM for total crypto received at approximately US $28.5 billion across the July 2024–June 2025 reference period. The high stablecoin share is structurally distinctive because Colombia does not face Argentine or Venezuelan-style hyperinflation; the adoption pattern is driven by remittance flows, USD savings preference at the household level, and an active P2P ecosystem rather than purely currency-defensive behaviour.

Coljuegos-licensed brands versus private club-based platforms — the structural distinction

The global online-poker landscape — and the Colombian picture within it — contains two structurally different product categories. Understanding the distinction helps in reading the licensed-operator section above against the practical product landscape, and it is particularly worth naming carefully because this is where misreadings can creep in.

Coljuegos-licensed brands are the fifteen operators detailed in the previous section — Colombian-incorporated entities with .co domains operating under Acuerdo 08 of 2020. Mandatory KYC, COP wallets, PSE bank-rail integration, closed-liquidity tables.

Private club-based platformsare platforms like ClubGG, PPPoker, Suprema, and PokerBros — designed as social-gaming frameworks at the platform layer with virtual chips on the app, and real-money handling, where it occurs, sitting at an agent or club-panel layer off-platform. The platform itself does not function as a Coljuegos cashier; account creation is typically email and password without document upload at signup. This is a product-design choice consistent with how these platforms operate globally; it does not change a player's underlying legal-status determination, which depends on whether the activity is consistent with Colombian law and remains the player's responsibility to determine with qualified counsel.

Where Deep Poker fits in this structure. Deep Poker is a published-platform agent on the ClubGG side for three unions globally — Massiv (via BSB Massiv), TMT, and TiNY Poker. Multiple ClubGG unions carry Spanish-language LATAM player communities; the agent panel handles account creation, deposits, withdrawals, and balance routing through a single Deep Poker interface rather than fragmented Telegram or third-party agent channels. Separately, Deep Poker is also an official agent for Stake.com.co under its Coljuegos C2226 licence — a parallel option for Colombian-resident players who prefer the federally-licensed regulated-domestic route. The club-side path remains the primary structural focus; Stake.com.co is a parallel commercial pathway operating under a different jurisdictional architecture.

Live tournament scene and Colombian poker pros

Colombia has an active live-poker circuit anchored by major Bogotá and Medellín venues. The market has matured alongside the federal regulatory framework — Coljuegos-licensed online operators feed players into the live circuit, and the live circuit develops the player base that supports both sides.

Live venues. Casino Río Bogotá (Cirsa-owned, Avenida 19 #122-64) operates a Texas Hold'em room with $1/$2 NLHE ($100 buy-in) and PLO 4/8 ($300 minimum buy-in) cash games seven days a week. Casino Hollywood (Winner Group) operates flagship venues in Bogotá (Unicentro, 120+ gaming positions, five gaming tables) and Medellín, both Hendon Mob registered. Additional live venues operate in Cali, Cartagena, and Barranquilla supporting the regional circuit.

2026 tour calendar. The Winner Poker Series Bogotá ran 14–26 January 2026 at Casino Hollywood Bogotá with a US $1 million guaranteed prize pool, including the NLH Open (14 January), Super High Roller (16 January), and High Roller (17 January). The Winner Poker Series Medellín ran 8–20 April 2026 at Casino Hollywood Medellín with a COP $2,000 million (~US $470,000) guarantee. The Circuito Colombiano de Póker (CCP) operates a recurring multi-stop circuit covering Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cartagena, and Medellín. The Campeonato Colombiano de Póker 2026 ran in Barranquilla over six days with 300+ players. The PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) — historically a Colombia stop — was definitively cancelled in late 2024 and replaced by the PokerStars Open series, which has not yet announced a Colombian stop.

Farid Jattin — Colombia's flagship live pro. 2023 Global Poker Index National Player of the Year for Colombia. Lifetime tournament earnings approximately US $10.49 million across 216 cashes and 15 wins per The Hendon Mob and CardPlayer rankings. 2024 highlights: WSOP Event #87 ($5K NLHE) runner-up for $334,747; WPT Voyage 2024 final-table chip leader; EPT Cyprus 2024 Day 1 chip leader; EPT Paris Main Event 2024 tenth-place finish. Most recent recorded cash: 27 July 2025 ($63,340). Jattin remains the most prominent representative of Colombian poker in international circuits as of April 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions