It has been reported on local news media that Uruguay is on its way to abolish online gambling services in their country by banning international operators from providing gambling services to Uruguay players.
All international operators that provide online gambling service in Uruguay are set to face a possible ban from offering their services to Uruguayan players as the country Chamber of Deputies has passed a bill that will cause total wipe out of all gambling providers.
This is being done as part of an even bigger project so that the legislators will put in place a framework where they are able to monitor all financial transactions within their borders. There is no indications on when this legislation is going to happen.
To most of the players and even operators, this decision has come to a surprise. This is because, in previous years, Uruguayan politicians gave the impression that they actually wanted to ralex their stance against online gambling operators.
According to the Uruguayan Gambling Control commission, over the years the casino industry showed a relatively steady increase of 6.5% every year to a staggering $6 billion in 2016 alone. However, discussions about regulating the online gambling market where opposed heavily from land based casino operators together with the federation of Gambling (Federación de Trabajadores de Juego) which both claimed that millions of dollars will be heading off shore should the online gambling be regulated.