The new tax is meant to raise funds to assist flood victims.
Colombia.- President Gustavo Petro has signed a set of decrees to roll out new taxes amid Colombia’s ongoing national economic and environmental emergency. The goal is to speed up the collection of resources to aid victims of floods in Córdoba, Antioquia, La Guajira, Sucre, Bolívar, Cesar, Magdalena and Chocó.
One of the decrees signed by President Gustavo Petro adds a 16 per cent consumption tax on bets placed through digital platforms. The tax is grouped alongside other measures including interest-free loans, debt relief for bank borrowers and special governing powers for mayors and governors.
The government justified the new rule by noting that the 2026 National General Budget lacks sufficient funding after Congress cut it by COP 10tn (€2.36bn) and turned down financing laws that planned to raise COP 16.3tn.
The new National Consumption Tax on online gambling applies to all bets placed from both within Colombia and overseas, and the taxable base will be all money deposited (cash, transfers, or cryptocurrencies) by a user to place wagers. The tax is calculated based on gross gaming revenue (GGR), which is defined as “the total amount of bets minus the prizes paid out in the corresponding two-month period.”
The Constitutional Court previously suspended similar measures included in Decrees 1390 and 1474 of 2025. Even so, the Executive branch holds that “the adoption of tax measures during a previous emergency does not stop the national government from using these tools again in a later exceptional situation to tackle a different crisis.”
The government argues that the online gambling sector has a “high capacity to contribute and maintains steady growth,” and that a lack of taxation for this segment created an unfair competitive distortion compared to land-based gambling operations.
It stated that all funds raised will be assigned “exclusively to cover General Budget expenses needed to address the causes of the State of Emergency.”