Gaming Employees Seek for Reopening Of Industries In Colombia

Published: 02/07/2020

Reading Time: 4 Min

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Fecoljuegos is a renowned gaming association in Colombia. It has recently asked its employees to sign a petition in order to reopen bingo halls and casino premises in the country.

The closure of the bingo and casino halls were due to the pandemic, which is narrowing its opportunities.

Several Jobs are At High Risk

In a report, it stated that over 2,50,000 families who have been employed in the gaming sector in the country are highly influenced by the COVID-19. This petition is a great strategy to emphasize starting the operation of the industry. Due to this crisis, all local bingo halls were closed for three months in Colombia.

The petition began by Zulma Palacios. She has been working for 20 years in the casino industry. Zulma began the petition via an online platform called Change.org. This online platform has now covered over 17 thousand signatures.

According to Zulma, the workers who have signed the petition are ensured to return to their regular operation. The petition asks the National Government to grant permission for the reponing of bingo and casino halls so that the workers can support their families.

Zulma Palacios also states that as a team of union staff, they are motivated enough for the reopening of the bingo halls. As being the leader and representative, she asks the authority to show some concern for their citizens. She further hopes that the government looks at thousands of people who are at high risk of their jobs. They are currently facing hard times and want to resume their work.

She further concluded that, by signing the petition, the operators are happy that they will be able to return to their work. The petition is a measure, which will allow them to unite 2,50,000 families who have been adversely influenced in this situation. She hopes that the government allows them to open the doors soon as they don’t want to lose their jobs.

Moreover, the gaming association claims that the majority of gaming companies are suffering from financial ruin due to the current lockdown. Many bingo companies are unable to meet their financial obligations. According to Fecoljuegos, most of the bingo operators could not find any chances to secure any type of credit during the crisis.

Evert Montero Cárdenas is the president at Fecoljuegos. He had already warned about the current circumstances which had enabled several multinational bingo operators to leave the markets. If this could not have happened, the bingo companies would have achieved great results by enhancing the Colombian economy.

Fecoljuegos Develops Biosecurity Protocols

Fecoljuegos has built robust biosecurity protocols in support of public health experts as well as epidemiologists. These biosecurity protocols will ensure the security of customers and workers when the government gives the green signal to start the gaming operations in the country.

The association highlighted that bingo halls are assumed as mass entertainment places. So, by placing a screen as a barrier between different gaming machines can guarantee social distancing for both customers as well as bingo staff.

Bingo Industry Contributions

During last year, the gaming industry has contributed over 6000,000 million dollars to continue the practices of these establishments in the state. Out of 6000,000 million dollars, 400,000 million dollars were contributed directly to the healthcare system of the country and the rest were intended for Value Added Tax (VAT).

In between these three months, bingos halted its transfer to around 90 thousand million dollars for exploitation rights. Apart from that, 135,000 million dollars to the public finances, and 45 thousand million for VAT.

These are some of the alarming figures that were contributed by the bingo sector during the last year.