Ecuador: Proposal to reopen casinos, resume gambling left out of President Noboa's referendum

Although the Government of Ecuador had initially included within a referendum sent to the Constitutional Court at the beginning of 2024 the proposal to resume gambling and reopen casinos, as reported by Yogonet, it seems to have finally given up on that intention.

Gambling has been banned since 2011, after a popular consultation carried out by the then president Rafael Correa and, through the same method, the current president Noboa intended to reinstate it.

Of the 11 questions sent to the Court, the one referring to the possible return of casinos and gambling halls was the only one canceled. Given the growing wave of violence, Noboa thought it inappropriate to introduce the debate on gambling. The rest of the questions of the referendum, related to issues of general importance such as security, the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking, justice, and the economy, will follow their course. 

The President's backtracking followed pressure from several political sectors, which fear that the return of casinos could be exploited by drug trafficking mafias to carry out money laundering operations.

In a message released by the Communication Secretariat of the Presidency, Noboa declared: "The citizen debate should focus on the recovery of peace, the fight against terrorist groups, the consolidation of the institutionalism of the State and the creation of employment."

The initial idea of reopening casinos was to recover at least a large part of the 25,000 jobs that were lost since the closure, in 2011, of the 160 existing gambling halls in Ecuador.