By Friday, the 38 casinos still operating in Ecuador will have to close

The Minister in charge of coordinating the Production, Santiago León, said that the extension demanded by casino representatives was rejected, because they have not opted for the guidelines presented to obtain such benefit.

“For example, they were told to show that, in the six month deadline given to close their business definitely, they would not achieve to recoup their investment. We have checked that they did recoup their resources”. He added that the extension has not been granted because there wasn’t a report of the state of the restructuring plan of the workers that would lose their jobs.

Last September 9, the government issued the Executive Decree 873 through which they ordered the immediate closure of illegal casinos. Besides, it established a six-minth deadline to conclude the activity of legal casinos and bingo halls.

According to the Ecuadorian Casino Association, there are 32 legal casinos and 15 bingo halls in the country, which employ 3,200 people (2,190 according to the records of the Ministry of Labour Relations).

The Ministry of Tourism, entity in charge of the registration of those venues, pointed through Roberto Hidalgo, legal councellor of the entity, explained that there are 57 casinos registrated in the country, 19 of which have already cancelled their registration.

“In several cases by their own decision, others for the compliance of the norms and, in a third case, by resolution of liquidation and dissolution of the Superintendence of the Company, The rest is in process of cancellation of their registration”. Once the deadline is complied, the Ministry of the Interior will be in charge of the controls. Slots, which are estimated to be 3,605, will be re-exported. It will be performed with the support of the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae), who has not informed how will the process be developed.

It has not existed a statement by the Ministry of Labour Relations with regards to the legal situation in which the workers of those companies are involved (payment of compensations). “We have not been told anything yet. We have expected an extention of the deadline, but it seems it will not happen”, pointed a casino employee in Quito.

Casino workers of those businesses would also have the chance to have access to the mechanisms of labour restructuring process started by the State for around 3,378 employees of the 120 gambling venues considered illegal.