The Independent Partymulticolored coalition partner, has a critical view of the bill that the Senate voted unanimously to enable online casino licenses in Uruguay because it considers that the controls proposed by the State are “weak” and “insufficient”.
This Wednesday a delegation from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) appeared before the Treasury Commission of Deputies to present the initiative that has already been approved by the Senate. The deputy of the Independent Party, Iván Posada, told The Observer whothat his political sector has a “very critical view of the project” that the Executive sent to Parliament.
Posada’s main observation is that if four or five licenses are enabled for private casinos to enter the online gaming business is “who controls how those platforms are run.” As the deputy commented, from the MEF they transmitted to him that each private will have its own audit and that the body in charge of the comptroller would be the Internal Audit of the Nation (AIN). “For me, that response was absolutely insufficient. The State is at a disadvantage and it worries me,” said the Independent Party deputy.
In Cabildo Abierto (CA) there is also no unanimity in supporting the government project. “It is more than clear to me that there is a rush to approve this,” deputy Sebastián Cal (CA) quipped, who raised the need for a deeper discussion on this initiative. Although his party strongly supported it in the Senate, Cal advanced to The Observer who will not vote on the text prepared by the Executive. Instead, he maintained, he will present his own project for which he seeks the support of the entire political system. As he explained, he has been working on it for a year, knowing the “risks” that were opened in countries like Spain, the United Kingdom or Colombia by enabling online gambling.
This bill is key to the real estate and casino initiative of the Cipriani group on the grounds of the former San Rafael hotel, in Punta del Este with an estimated investment of some US$ 200 million. This private even claims that the bill enables “full” licenses so that the sports bets. “Why can’t the state exploit sports betting? Why should sports betting remain solely in the hands of a de facto monopoly, such as the private company Banca de Quinielas? I have nothing personal against the Bank of Quinielas, but there is a de facto monopoly and I limit myself to highlighting a reality, which is that”, said the representative of the Cipriani group Pablo Monsuárez in Parliament.
The criticism of the PIT-CNT
The The Executive Secretariat of the PIT-CNT revealed this week “its real concern” about the bill voted by the Senate for “his economic and social consequences.
“One of the aspects that is going to cause serious damage to society involves the reduction of the level of collection by the State. According to the project, and according to what has been reported in the Treasury Commission of the Chamber of Senators, the method of payment of canon or taxes, would be much lower than the current one, risking that online gambling is mainly exploited, leaving physical casinos as a “facade”. To achieve online exploitation licenses, in this sense it is important to note that a large part of the collection by the gambling regulation mechanisms that exist today, are a source of financing for the development of social policies, which will clearly be affected if the collection falls,” warned the PIT-CNT Secretariat.
Likewise, he indicated that “as this project is intended to be approved, it is clear that it will cause an impact on the health of the population since the multiple platforms increasingly induce gambling.”
The president of La Banca (5 de Oro, Quiniela, La Tómbola, Raspadita and Supermatch), Roberto Palermo, also warned about the risks to health and gambling that a bill can cause –which the Senate voted for and which is now being studied by the Deputies–, which enables multiple platforms so that casinos can offer online games. He argues that liberalism and free competition in the game are not compatible and that European countries are traveling the opposite path to the one that Uruguay now intends to enter.
The position of the MEF
The Ministry of Economy and Finance defended in Parliament his bill to legalize online casinos and relativized the impact that this new modality may have on the compulsive problems that certain people have when it comes to gambling. Also that this problem cannot be an obstacle to the central objective of this initiative: the development of regulated betting premises.
“Gaming is a disease and must be treated by public health, and it is treated precisely there,” The general director of Casinos, Gustavo Anselmi, remarked before the legislators, citing the latest official figures available on this disease. The latest report from the Hospital de Clínicas that the General Directorate of Casinos has indicates that in 2021 some 100 people were treated for gambling problems at the Hospital de Clínicas. In 2020 there had been 78 cases.
Meanwhile, the undersecretary of Economy and Finance, Alejandro Irastorza, highlighted the rationale of the Executive Power to promote a law of this type. The 2020 health emergency, he recalled, led to all casinos having to close. All this activity then began to take place through internet games, which are illegal in Uruguay. “This activity was growing exponentially and, no matter how many sites were canceled, after a while others opened,” he said. “It was permanent,” he assured.
Thus, the disappearance of legal activity, the undersecretary insisted, caused the entire legal sector to experience economic difficulties. To the point that the General Directorate of Casinos was resentful and that body had to resort to a reserve fund to maintain its workforce, which also receives variable salaries. In addition, he had to appeal to General Revenue. “All this determined the preparation of this bill,” said the Undersecretary of Economy.
