Montevideo will pay US$3m in withdrawals for Casino Parque Hotel
Divesting from Casino Parque Hotel is proving costly for the Montevideo City Hall even before it starts saving. The municipality will spend nearly 3 million dollars on incentivized departures for 35 of its 44 employees at the municipal casino, as reported by El Observador newspaper. The establishment left the departmental jurisdiction on September 1st and is now under the General Directorate of Casinos, which reports to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The amount per person averages over 80,000 dollars. The incentive formula varies by age. Those under 60 years old receive 22 payments; those older than that age receive 20. In both cases, the calculation is based on earnings over the last three months, including incidentals. The resolution by Mayor Mario Bergara splits the disbursement in half. One half is paid on November 30th of this year, and the remainder is due on February 28th, 2027.
The nine employees not included in the scheme will continue as municipal employees and will be reassigned to other departments, retaining some benefits carried over from their previous stage.
On the revenue side, the transfer also includes a transaction for the building and its contents, and here an inconsistency has emerged that has already generated political controversy. Before the Departmental Board, the municipality's Director of Economic Development, Camilo Benítez, described a lease of 20,000 dollars per month for twenty-four months, plus 650,000 dollars in exchange for the equipment and slots still on the premises. However, the resolutions published by the City Hall on August 27th do not state this. They establish two thirty-day loan agreements (comodatos), with automatic renewal for identical periods, one for the building and another for the assets. Juan Ignacio Abdala, a councilman from the National Party, demanded reports to explain this discrepancy and clarify the definitive conditions.
The end of this phase comes after several years in the red. In 2025, the casino posted a deficit of 127 million pesos, and the departmental administration itself had been estimating annual losses of around 2.5 million dollars.
Tags: Casino Parque Hotel, Montevideo City Hall, Mario Bergara, General Directorate of Casinos