Uruguay Pushes Online Gambling Regulation to Fight Illegal Supply

Uruguay’s CUOASEC is pressing for a modern regulatory framework for gambling, arguing that the current rules were written for a market that no longer exists. For high-risk operators and PSPs, the point is simple: when legal supply is thin and the rules lag the channel shift, unlicensed traffic fills the gap.

1. Louis Gama, executive secretary of the Cámara Uruguaya de Operadores y Arrendadores de Servicios de Casino y Salas de Esparcimiento (CUOASEC), said Uruguay needs a regulatory framework that matches today’s digital gambling market. In his view, the existing rules were designed for a different reality, before online platforms reshaped player behavior.
2. In an opinion column published in a Uruguayan media outlet, Gama argued that the growth of digital platforms has widened the gap between market behavior and the law. He said that gap has helped unauthorized supply grow and has reduced the State’s effective presence in key parts of the market.
3. His core argument is that the absence of updated regulation does not remove gambling activity; it pushes it into informal channels. In those channels, there are no user protection tools, no responsible gambling policies, and no effective oversight. The goal of regulation, he said, is to organize an existing market and give the State the tools to supervise it.
4. Gama specifically pointed to online gambling and slot machines in neighborhood venues as the segments where weak legal competition has allowed unauthorized operators to strengthen their position. He said regulating both segments is necessary if the State wants to recover ground from operators outside the supervised system.
5. He also said the legislative process needs input from all relevant actors, because regulatory decisions have economic, social, and operational consequences. Gama added that formal operators already meet fiscal, labor, and technical obligations, and run responsible gambling and anti-money laundering programs; changing the balance without technical criteria, he warned, could expand the space occupied by illegal gambling rather than shrink it.

The thing is, this is not a Uruguay-only story. Gama said similar delays in updating legal frameworks across Latin America have created parallel operating ecosystems, where users face platforms without identity checks, betting limits, or self-exclusion tools. For PSPs and acquirers, that usually means one thing: the longer the legal framework stays behind the market, the more attractive the unlicensed side becomes.