Simon’s Guide to Gambling in Uruguay

Uruguay is a rather small country, so it’s quite surprising that it has as much as some 18-19 land-based casinos currently. All are located in major resorts, as they are mainly tourist attractions.
Although locals are not in any way restricted from playing either. All casinos are licensed and overseen by the government.

Online casinos are not mentioned in the regulations in Uruguay, therefore the state does not issues online casino licenses, but in 2013 one local casino, the Conrad Punta del Este Resort and Casino signed a contract with Nevada gaming firm Bally Technologies to launch an online platform running on software provided by the latter*. So it seems, the Uruguayan government doesn’t restrict domestic operators from setting up internet casinos.

And it doesn’t restrict its residents from playing on foreign platforms either. Most online casinos accept Uruguayan players as well.

Bingo is legal in Uruguay in licensed casinos. However, there is no information on whether any of these actually has a Bingo hall.

Bingo is seemingly not very popular in Uruguay.

Uruguayan residents who are interested, however are accepted by many foreign online platforms and as there are no specific regulations on any form of online gambling, so authorities won’t interfere if they wish to play Bingo online.

Playing Poker is legal inside licensed casinos and many of the major land-based casinos in Uruguay operate poker tables. Poker has become quite popular in the country recently. In fact, this year, the country hosted the 8th season of the Latin American Poker Tour organised by PokerStars in the Punta del Este Hotel and Casino in Montevideo between September 18-22.

Online Poker is also quite popular and as gambling regulations in Uruguay doesn’t specifically mention online gambling, players are free to create accounts and play on most major foreign online Poker platforms.

Uruguay is the smallest country to ever win the Football World Championship. Football, and other sports too are therefore quite popular in the country.
It comes as a bit of a surprise, that the only form of legal sports betting is the so-called Supermatch (pari-mutuel betting), which is ran by the organisation conducting the National Lottery (Nacional de Loterías). The company also operates an online platform.

Sports betting and online sports betting a heavily restricted state monopoly in Uruguay.

Pari-mutuel betting is also legally available on the country’s two thoroughbred tracks, the Hipodromo Nacional de Maroñas in Montevideo and the Hipodromo Municipal de Las Piedras in Las Piedras. All horse breeding and betting activities are overseen and controlled by the governmental body Hipica Rioplatense Uruguay S. A., which is a member of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

Just to give an idea about the scale of its operations, in 2010 it was reported, that the turnover of betting on the horse tracks was some €18.1 million, 70 percent of which was returned to bettors and more than 3,500 thoroughbred stallions and mares are registered nationwide.

There’s also an online platform available to place bets on races held in Maroñas, the oldest track of the country which was first opened as early as 1889.

Foreign online bookmakers are not directly regulated. Players from Uruguay are welcome by most online bookmakers.

Conducted by the government, the lottery in Uruguay is known as Loterias y Quinielas. The scale of its operations is rather small compared to the lotteries ran by other South American states, due to the country’s size.

There is, however quite a variety in the games offered, which include scratch tickets, raffles, instant lotteries, online lottery terminals and the aforementioned ‘Supermatch’ sports betting.

There is no specific law (or clause) regulating Bitcoin gambling in Uruguay, and its apparently legal in the South American country to make financial transactions using the digital currency.

There are no specific laws regulating any form of online gambling in Uruguay, so as expected, no specific word on Bitcoin gambling either.

In practice, Uruguayan residents can freely enjoy foreign Bitcoin casinos that accept them.