Tourist magazines boast of Colombia’s beaches on the Caribbean, ports on the Pacific, mountain grandeur, and Amazon jungles that yield the world’s finest emeralds. Colombia is a beautiful land. Democracy has prevailed in its political institutions since 1957. With a one-term limit on the office, free elections for president occur every four years. Each election has seen a peaceful transition. With its 35 million residents, it could be an ideal country.
But Colombia has its problems. A new agricultural commerce developed around the illegal drug industry, and drug activity has created a level of violence not witnessed since the days of the Spanish conquistadors. The problems of developing tourism based on the casino industry in Colombia are monumental, and perhaps insurmountable.
Bogota, the capital city, has over 5 million residents and a feel similar to New York and Paris. Still, the prominence of soldiers guarding street corners with high-powered weapons confirms unrest and uneasiness. In 1987, the murders of judges and other political officials who battled the drug lords of the Medellin Connection left no doubt as to who controlled the country. The very word Colombian has become synonymous with negatives that bode no good will for a national tourism industry.
Nevertheless, there is a gambling industry. Horse racing is authorized, there is a national lottery and local lotteries, and there are casinos. Somehow they have managed to get customers, but few would expect that high-rolling tourists could be found among their customers.
Colombia has had many casinos, but until very recently, there was little cohesiveness among their owners and operators. The commercial games were not subject to common rules or regulations. Until 1990, the national law was of little practical significance for the casino industry. There were references to taxes for tourism development, but national taxes were not collected. In a visit with national officials in 1989, I gained the impression that the national government wished to avoid any political controversy that might attend a debate on casino policy. With so many other more troubling problems, casino policy was one “can of worms” that could remain closed.
In 1990 a process of change began. The Colombian government undertook national health care reform and looked toward gaming revenues to fund health programs. A private company was begun under the auspices of federal authorities. Called the ECOSALUD, it holds an exclusive government charter to license and/or to operate directly or through franchising arrangements almost all forms of gaming in Colombia. Lotteries are outside of its purview and may continue to be operated by the national government and its provinces. Since the creation of ECOSALUD, laws have been passed to specify the rules for blackjack games, machine gaming, and racetrack betting. As of 1995, there were fifteen larger casinos operating under the official policies of the national government. Each had about eight to ten tables and 100 to 125 slot machines. Other venues also had slot machines. There were perhaps 30,000 machines in the country.
A most funny looking game: Espherodromo, the Bogata variation of Roulette.
The phrase “casino industry” needs qualification. Colombia has casinos, but there is little cohesiveness among their owners and operators. Commercial games have few rules. Most casinos are not subject to the national casino law. The law references the use of taxes to promote tourism, but there are no national casino taxes. Learning the casino policy of Colombia is difficult, not just for an outsider but also for the highest government officials in Bogota. Carlos Marulanda Ramirez was the cabinet minister of economic development in 1989. His ministry oversees tourism and casino policy. When I interviewed him in Bogota on 12 January 1989, he admitted that “there is no clear policy as I can see it, and I am the minister”. He was studying the matter because the country should have some direction for its casinos. Ramirez acknowledged that casinos were low-priority items for a government caught up in the broader issues of economy, violence, and justice. Politicians are wary of gambling, and although they support a national lottery and horse-racing establishment, they are hesitant to endorse casino gaming officially. They believe casino policy is best developed outside the legislative process.
Casino gaming is legal under legislation passed in 1943 and 1944 and presidential decrees issued in 1977 and 1978. An earlier law passed in 1927 had prohibited casino gaming. Under the 1977 decree, a national tourism corporation within the Ministry of Economic Development would authorize casinos for a term of twenty years in the cities of Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Cali and within the region of Guajira. The 1978 decree specified that a national tourist investment company would own the Cartagena casinos. All casinos would exist according to agreements between the owners and the alcalde (or mayor of the city). Fifty percent of the public revenues from the casinos would go to promote tourism. Yet, the laws and decrees do not dictate the types of games played, the rules of the games, the taxation of gaming activity, or the inspection of the gaming halls and their personnel. The laws are simply broad statements saying that there could be casino gaming. Although the laws mention four jurisdictions, casinos exist in locations not specified by the national “policy”. The industry and the national minister believe the alcaldes and the councils of the city governments should control gaming. Local governments now decide the style of gaming and any taxation.
A national policy could have emerged. Before the mid-1980s, the national government appointed the local government officials. The alcaldes are now popularly elected. Still, the development of gaming policy never influenced appointments of local officials. Because of the local nature of casino licensing and control, there is no definitive list of casino properties in Colombia. In 1989 the National Tourist Board identified casinos in Santa Marta, Cali, Cartagena, Medellin, Barranquilla, Bogota, and San Andreas Island. Santa Marta, the first European-settled community in South America, has casinos in the Hotel Rodadero and the Tamaca Inn. The Caribbean port city of Barranquilla, the second-largest city in Colombia, has a casino in the Hotel Cadebia. Cali, another city of over one million, offers five gaming houses. Medellin, a city whose name is synonymous with the violence of the illegal drug trade, has three casinos, only one of which is now open to the public. There are over ten casinos in Bogota, two in Cartagena, and two more on the Island of San Andreas.
The Bogota alcalde will license casinos, but he will not allow roulette. Yet, the game of roulette is a game of choice among Latin players. Therefore, the local casino operators used their ingenuity to develop espherodromo, an alternative game. Eleven billiard balls, ten with numbers and one solid white, are released from a high platform and rolled down a chute. The chute splits into two, and part of the balls go in each direction as their descent follows a path not unlike paths on a meandering water slide. The two chutes then meet and the balls go into a large bowl, hitting each other. They descend until one enters a hole at the bottom of the bowl. This ball has the winning number. The concept is, of course, the same as for roulette. The payoff on the ten-to-one risk is nine to one. The house wins with the white ball, giving it a 10 percent edge over the players. Espherodromo has been taken to its ultimate form in Eugenio Leal Pozo’s four casinos—the Versailles and Gallery 21 in the Tequendama Hotel and the Club Diversiones and Ambassador. He developed an automatic elevator system that returns the balls to their starting platform for the next play. Two dealers work the game. One dealer conducts betting activity, and the other oversees the machine. Eugenio Leal Pozo is a Cuban expatriate who worked in the Gran Casino of Havana and the Colony Club of London. He formerly owned the casino at the Hotel Hispaniola in Santo Domingo. He came to Bogota in 1975 and to the Tequendama in 1985. His two hotel casinos are small, but very plush, and they offer a few blackjack tables, one baccarat game, one punto banco table, four slots, and espherodromo.
The other Bogota casinos are on its main streets and cater to local walk-in traffic. There are no dress codes. Some of their names conjure up gaming images for potential players: the Atlantic City Casino Club, the Mar Del Plata, and the Palacio Del Cesar Club. Bogota casinos pay no special taxes on gaming wins, but they pay a monthly fee for each table. They also pay normal business profits taxes.
Eugenio Leal Pozo also owns a casino on San Andreas Island. The island is two hours from Bogota by air (one hour from Cartagena). National tourists do not come to gamble; almost all players in the island’s two casinos are locals. As in Bogota, Leal has been an innovator on the San Andreas casino scene. He has introduced a roulette wheel with ten numbers and one zero. In his International Casino, the players suffer the same odds disadvantages as they do at espherodromo. Yet, many like the action more than that provided by his two standard wheels with thirty-six numbers and two zeros.
Tourist magazines all consider Cartagena de Indias to be one of the most fascinating cities of the continent. It was founded in 1533 and soon became a walled fortress guarding Spanish shipping that used the harbor as a point of debarkation for wealth of all kinds. The present city has two parts: the walled old city and the new resort beach community called El Laguito. The two casinos are in the new area. The drug wars of 1990 resulted in the temporary closing of the two casinos; however, they have since reopened. The Casino Turistico de Cartagena was a “down market” property. If it had many customers, it would be a grind joint (see Glossary). An outside entrance way on St. Martin’s Street was lined with two rows of Bally mechanical slots that were always exposed to the salty sea air. The four roulette and six blackjack tables also showed the effects of being exposed to the elements. At 6:00 p.m. on a Saturday in January 1989, only one table was open. The property may exist today only as a repository for a license that can later be moved or sold for a lucrative profit.
The other casino, the El Caribe, has been the premier gaming property in Colombia. Its licensing status is also confusing. The casino started in the Caribe Hotel. Then, fifteen years ago, a major emerald company based in Bogota constructed an office and shopping complex near the hotel. It also envisioned having a 300-room hotel in the office-shopping complex and would build a foundation to support a hotel tower. The company gained control of the casino license and moved the gaming facility to its property. The hotel was never built. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Development supported the construction of a new Hilton Hotel (the government owns 46 percent of the property). The deluxe hotel with 298 rooms offers full facilities for all tourist activities. During his interview with me in January 1989, the minister of economic development stated that the hotel would have a casino in the future. But others suggest that such talk has been going on ever since the hotel opened. The managers of the El Caribe casino affirmed that they based their agreement to operate the facility on an understanding that Cartagena would have no more than two licenses. The minister’s position is that he is the government, and he can have a license if he decides there should be one. The managers suggest that the local government must approve all licenses, and the local government said “only two” casinos. On the other hand, the Hilton possibly could take the license from the Casino Turistico, or it could negotiate to have the El Caribe operate a Hilton casino under its license.
The El Caribe developed into a major casino property only after a new U.S. management team took charge in 1985. It introduced U.S.-style gaming, retrained dealers, replaced French roulette with the faster U.S. roulette games, remodeled the facility, installed a prive sala (private room) with four full games of baccarat, and opened a craps table. A special feature of the casino was a series of cockfights that were held in a special ring just outside of the main gambling area. Players could watch the fights and place private wagers on the birds. A low ceiling over the gambling area permitted the installation of a system of mirrors (affectionately called the Cartagena Catwalk) that permits security personnel to observe action on all tables in a pit simultaneously. There are no security cameras except in the cage area. The U.S. managers also set up a gambling junket program for East Coast high rollers. Yet, as the drug crises deepened, players refused to come from the United States. In 1989, most foreign play came from Canadians.
In that same year, the casino drew about 200 patrons a night, with weekend crowds as high as 500. The casino had eighty dealers. All were Colombians, as it was very hard for a foreigner to get a work visa. As in Honduras, a system of private loan agents existed to circulate money to patrons. The agents borrowed funds from the casino and loaned it to players. The agents repaid the casino each evening. They charged the players 10 percent for their services and took all the risks of collecting the debts.
Local police moved in and out of the casino to maintain order. When Colombian drug lords visited the casino, the understanding was that they came unarmed and did not engage in drug business in the casino. Although their activity destroyed the casino’s best foreign markets, the casinos hoped that with such understandings, they would not destroy remaining markets.
The government has also encouraged a revitalization of the other smaller urban casinos in Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Santa Marta, and other cities, as it has authorized the importation of additional machine games for the facilities. As the twentieth century ended, authorities were successful in attracting capital for a new casino in Bogota. The Hollywood Casino featured fourteen tables and 180 machines.