Interactive
Uruguay – Lottery workers stop selling tickets in opposition to online gambling bill
By James - 14 October 2022
The National Federation of Gaming Workers (FENAJU) stopped selling lottery tickets yesterday in order to call for a “serious debate” about the online gambling bill now under discussion in Parliament.
The union represents 3,500 workers in the sector. FENAJU wants authorities to evaluate the regulation of online gambling in Uruguay including more control over competition and advertising, player bonuses used to attract players, responsible gambling measures and how jobs will be impacted.
“We are not against online gambling, we think it is welcome in Uruguay because it is imposed on the world, but it must be strongly regulated. We also believe that objections should be made because there was little discussion with the group of workers in the sector”, El País quoted Leonel Revelese, representative and former president of FENAJU as saying.
According to Revelese, “Online gambling should be strongly regulated and with a very high participation of the State… When there is strong competition, heavy advertising and delivery of bonuses, to encourage people to play, there are cases of gambling addiction,” he said basing his arguments on his own analysis of the European market.
Revelese proposed that the State consolidate online gaming in a “single server or platform” through which private parties would be authorized to operate. However, he assured that “advertising and bonuses” should be prohibited.
The union’s position is that online gambling must be regulated since, if it is not, “state revenue will drop”, because international companies will continue to operate without paying taxes.
In November FENAJU asked lawmakers why they had not been consulted over the online bill and expressed their “deep concern about the risk of loss of sources of employment, which are threatened with this kind of proposal, which has not been addressed in conjunction with officials.”
Currently online gambling is prohibited by article 244 of Law 19,535 of 2017, although online sports betting is permitted via government monopoly. In November Uruguay’s Executive branch sent a bill to the senate that would permit both state run and privately run casinos to offer online casino games including poker roulette and slots.
The bill, signed by President Lacalle Pou, would give the General Directorate of Casinos of the Ministry of Economy and Finance authority to run online casino games, and gives the Executive branch permission to authorize private companies that already operate casinos as well as future license holders permission to offer online casino games.
