Uruguay to block 17 offshore online betting sites

In case you missed it last week, 17 offshore gaming sites found to be operating illegally in Uruguay will be blocked now that they have been identified by The Uruguayan Board of Lotteries and Pools Betting (DNLQ). The stipulated term for these companies -- including bet365, Pokerstars.net, 888.es and Bwin -- to remove themselves from the market is now over.

From Games Magazine:

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DNLQ’s Director, Luis Gama, told local newspaper El País that as it was “difficult to determine who is the responsible person” for each of these sites a series of notifications had been made via the Official Gazette reporting the situation. Up until now, none of the operators have responded and presented their case to the Board.

Once the stipulated time is reached, the Communications Services Regulatory Unit (URSEC), will have 48 hours to communicate with the relevant Internet service provider to block these sites which in turn will be given a further 48 hours. According to these deadlines, Gama told El Pais, that in all likelihood that the blocking of offshore websites will go into effect next week. He explained that these websites are illegal in Uruguay because current regulations prohibit any type of betting game not specifically authorised by law.

The DNLQ had already compiled a list of sites which were accepting bets in Uruguay which would be blocked, Gama told El País last month. Although the prohibition of bets not authorised by the State derives from previous legislation this has been reinforced in recent months via both an executive decree as well two articles included in the new Accountability Law, which was put forward by the Executive branch.

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Read the entire article here: http://www.gamesbras.com/english-ver...ites-7221.html

Yep very complicated situation for colleagues in Uruguay. They are just following the example of Colombia, but the perspective is not good.

A closed pool of Latinamerican players will be very low, stakes are not the highest and the taxes the governments are going to collect will not be that good. Our colleagues working with the Latam market knows about this reality, most of the LATAM players are looking for free games like a way to bost their incomes without investing.

Also, there is some uncertainty about ewallts and banks, because by example in Argentina you cannot cashout from Skrill or Neteller to a bank account.

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Originally Posted by Vargoso

most of the LATAM players are looking for free games like a way to bost their incomes without investing

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I saw banners focused on latam that reflect this. Something like "do not you have money, make it with betting". In Portuguese it is even more complicated because there is a homonym "ganhar", which means both "to win" and "earn". People are even more reckless in latam than in 1st world countries.

Online gambling has therefore potential to be even more devastating in here. And exactly as you say: the money that can be made via taxing relatively low incomes here does not help either.

In the end this can be good for affiliates. I believe latam will be about grey operators and therefore affiliates will be needed.

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Originally Posted by Sherlock

In the end this can be good for affiliates. I believe latam will be about grey operators and therefore affiliates will be needed.

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Maybe, maybe not. The LATAM markets are less about affiliates and more about agents.

Culturally, at least insofar as poker goes, LATAM players lean much more towards dealing with agents in person rather than affiliate websites. They rely on the agents for where to play, making deposits, and getting withdrawals.

Never heard about agents/payout kiosks here in the South (exception: I remember 1 Cris branch n Paraguay, now they have pretty much developed legal biz there, but they are also a general exception in this area and not significant country). People just gamble offline, police is corrupted not to see it or directly involved. Maybe you are talking about Caribbean area? Or I am really way off. I would like to know more.

I think the market here is non_developed. After all bovada tries/tried to get here, but the results are really bad.

Either way anything is better than what is happening in Europe.

Edit: I see you are talking about poker.

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Originally Posted by Sherlock

Edit: I see you are talking about poker.

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Yeah, poker. Not just the winning players though. The recreationals are in the same frame of mind. They like face to face interactions with someone they "know".

I'm also generalizing based on information I've gotten from mainly Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela.