The General Direction of Casinos challenged a decree that expands mixed operation in Uruguay

The report was presented to the Ministry of Economy and declares that the decree is considered a retroceso from the legal point of view. The casino director, Fernando Nopitsch, was the promoter of the decree, and aims to perform a mega tender to open new casinos with the mixed system and pass others in charge of the state to this system, too.

According to the report, the new rule "destroys a system that habilitated private investments of us$ 150 million, for almost 15 years, keeping the state, in a clear and transparent way, the direct operation of the casinos inserted in it”.

It also adds that, the new regulation, "habilitates indirectly the proliferation of casinos, just connecting them to a sports and cultural development, which this entity and its councellors had rejected in the period in which Juan C. Bengoa was the General Director”.

It affirms that the “errors in the new regulation” may potentially generate, on top of an improper transference of public resources to the public sector, a "series of administrative acts and contracts, that may be subject of future claims against the state.”

It also declares that the decree involves a “backward step in corporate social responsibility” and an “incongruity" with the government policy, that recently presented a bill that hardens the norm with regards to illegal operation of games of chance.

It adds that the decree does not require a previous study from Casinos, to compare the profitability of its venues under the traditional regime, with the planned profitability, in case they incorporate to the mixed system.