Montevideo: Casino Parque Hotel to Ministry of Economy this year
Mayor Mario Bergara confirmed the imminent transfer of the historic venue to the General Directorate of Casinos. The measure seeks to stop the municipality's financial bleeding, which has lost more than 2 million dollars in the last fiscal year alone operating the complex.
The Municipality of Montevideo has decided to cut its losses and end its role as a gambling operator. Mayor Mario Bergara confirmed to the local press that the management of the emblematic Casino Parque Hotel will be transferred to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) before the end of 2026.
The decision, described by the official as "made and discussed," responds to a dual logic: on the one hand, the strategic restructuring of municipal functions, and on the other, the urgency of plugging a fiscal hole that has been draining taxpayer resources for a decade. "The process is advanced. I aspire for the casino to pass into the orbit of the Directorate of Casinos in a relatively short period, this year," Bergara stated.
A decade-long fiscal "black hole"
The numbers behind the municipal operation are deep in the red. According to data revealed by the municipality itself, Casino Parque Hotel closed the 2023 fiscal year with losses close to UYU 90 million (more than USD 2 million).
However, the full picture is even more concerning. In the last ten years, the accumulated negative balance amounts to UYU 800 million (about USD 20 million). This financial reality has made it unsustainable to argue for keeping the venue under city administration, whose resources should be allocated to public works and services, not to subsidize gambling losses.
The State as a natural operator
Bergara was emphatic about the role each government body should play: "We had already said that it makes no sense for the municipality to manage a casino. It is reasonable for the State to do so, as it is responsible for gambling policies."
With this transfer, the venue will come under the umbrella of the General Directorate of Casinos (DGC), the agency dependent on the Ministry of Economy that has the technical know-how and commercial capacity to try to reverse the numbers of the Parque Hotel, either through direct management or under the "mixed system" (association with private entities) that has successfully worked in other parts of the country.
The mayor's confirmation ratifies what Camilo Benítez, the municipality's Director of Economic Development, had announced days earlier, thus sealing the fate of one of the most traditional venues in the Uruguayan capital, which will now seek a second chance under new management.
Tags: Uruguay, Uruguay casinos, Parque Hotel casino