Cayley Taylor examines the gaming market in Ecuador
All bets are off when it comes to the gaming sector in Ecuador - and have been since the last of the legally operating casinos were forced to close their doors in March of 2012.
Citizens in the small South American country of just under 15 million went to the polls on May 7, 2011, when President Rafael Correa’s leftist government raised the casino ban possibility as one of 10 questions in a national referendum.
While plebiscite topics ranged from judicial and media reforms to a ban on bullfighting, it was question number seven that put an abrupt end to the Andean nation’s 50-year-old gaming industry. Voters were asked: “Do you agree if the country prohibits gambling businesses such as casinos and slot parlours?” Ballot results showed that 46 per cent of the voters were in favour of the measure, while 42 per cent were opposed.
The man behind question seven, 50-year-old Correa, first swept to power in 2006 and was re-elected on a wave of popular support from the country’s poor majority for a second and third term in 2009 and 2013 respectively. With vows to tackle poverty through heavy state spending and higher taxes, the contentious US trained economist has been praised by supporters as the voice of the impoverished and maligned by detractors as a rash authoritarian responsible for weakening the nation’s private sector and clamping down on freedom
Read the full article in the January issue of InterGaming
