Colombia bill would add 19% VAT to online betting deposits

Colombia's government wants to charge 19% VAT on games of chance, and for online gambling the tax would be calculated on what players deposit. The measure is part of Proyecto de Ley 477 de 2026 Cámara, an economic rescue bill of 106 articles filed with the Chamber of Representatives on 29 October by Finance Minister Miguel Gómez Martínez and Vice President José Manuel Restrepo. It is a proposal: the bill still has to pass Congress.

The details below follow reports of the bill by El Tiempo, Valora Analitik, Focus Gaming News, AskSpinner and the law firm Goyen Legal, which agree on the main points; they are not quoted from the bill text itself.

What the bill would change

According to those reports, Article 41 would apply the general VAT rate of 19% to the circulation, sale or operation of games of chance. Traditional lotteries would be excluded.

For games operated exclusively online, the taxable event would still be the bet, but the tax would be worked out on the player's deposit: money or crypto-assets paid to the operator to fund a betting account. The tax base would be the deposit divided by 1.19, so the VAT would be built into the amount deposited rather than added on top. As a worked example, a deposit of COP 119,000 would contain a base of COP 100,000 and VAT of COP 19,000, which is about 16% of the deposit. The operator would be responsible for paying it, and Valora Analitik reports that this would include operators based abroad that serve users with tax ties to Colombia.

For land-based games, the bill sets monthly bases in UVT, Colombia's tax value unit that is updated every year: 40 UVT per slot machine, 580 UVT per gaming table and 6 UVT per bingo seat. Goyen Legal says these bases double the current ones.

AskSpinner also reports that a separate article would raise the tax on gambling winnings from 20% to 30%.

What is still unclear

The reports do not give a start date for the online VAT, as of 30 October. Valora Analitik and AskSpinner report that the Finance Ministry expects the online VAT to raise COP 2 trillion in 2027 and about COP 2.3 trillion a year after that. The estimate is as reported by Valora Analitik and AskSpinner; it is not quoted from the bill.

According to Valora Analitik, a temporary decree (Decreto 240) set a 16% national consumption tax on online games of chance for 2026, charged on gross gaming revenue, meaning stakes minus prizes paid. Stifel analyst Jeffrey Stantial, quoted by casino.org, says that tax is scheduled to expire on 31 December 2026. A deposit-based VAT is a different tax on a different base, not a higher rate of the same one.

Stifel also expects committee work in late November and says the proposal could be revised there or removed from the bill. Colombia's regular congressional session ends on 16 December and resumes on 16 February 2027, casino.org reports. Shares in Rush Street Interactive, which operates in Colombia, fell about 11% in midday trading on 30 October, according to casino.org.

Our reading

For players, the key change is the base. Today's temporary tax falls on what operators keep after paying out prizes. A VAT on deposits would apply to money going in, whether a player later wins or loses, and because deposits are usually far larger than what operators keep, the tax could cost them considerably more. If the bill passes in this form, operators might pass part of the cost on, for example through deposit terms or smaller bonuses. That is a possible effect, not something any operator has announced. Until Congress votes, this bill changes nothing for Colombian players, as of 30 October.

For other Latin American markets, see Chile's Senate bill with an advertising ban, bonus ban and 22% tax, Peru's draft online betting rules and Brazil's extinguished betting licences. Rush Street's latest results are in our Q3 report.