Uruguay’s private-casino association CUOASEC has submitted a proposal to the Executive Branch that would create a formal regime for online betting and online casino play. The draft would require state authorisation for any online gaming, limit the market to licensed operators, and place those operators under regulatory oversight.
According to the earliest reporting on the proposal, CUOASEC described the plan as an integral framework built around state authorisation, supervision, user protection and responsible gambling. The association also wants to block unauthorised sites, reserve an exclusive .bet.uy domain for legal operators, and create a National User Registry.
Those measures are meant to separate authorised businesses from irregular platforms and to increase control over the activity. The proposal also addresses traceability of operations and the protection of personal data.
The draft goes further by calling for cybersecurity requirements, self-exclusion tools, a sanctions regime and measures to prevent gambling addiction and combat money laundering. CUOASEC says the aim is a secure, transparent and responsible market under strict state oversight.
The association argues that illegal online gambling has economic and social costs, creates unfair competition and can facilitate tax evasion. It also warns that users of unauthorised platforms lack sufficient guarantees of transparency, security and protection.
A central feature of the proposal is its licensing condition: future online licences would be available only to companies already authorised to run physical establishments in Uruguay. In practice, that would confine access to the online casino market to current land-based casino operators.
The draft does not yet spell out the licensing process, the criteria for authorisation or the tax rules. It also leaves unclear what role brick-and-mortar casinos would play in the digital market, saying the government would have to decide how revenue is allocated.
The proposal lands against a broader backdrop in which Uruguay keeps a monopoly over betting games. Online sports betting is legal only through Supermatch, while private companies are barred from offering online casino games.
There is also unfinished legislation in the background. A bill approved by the Senate in August 2022 was still awaiting review by the Chamber of Deputies, and CUOASEC was formed at the end of November 2025 while the Executive Branch was already examining possible changes to online casinos and slot machines in physical venues.
CUOASEC says its member companies have invested more than US$600 million and employ nearly 20,000 people, although those figures have not been independently verified in the reporting. Luis Gama, the association’s executive secretary, previously headed Loterías y Quinielas, the Ministry of Economy agency that regulates land-based casinos and online sports betting, from 2012 to 2020. He said the group was created to consolidate an industry voice capable of engaging with the state.
