Ecuador’s constitutional court has rejected a recent question addressing the reopening of casinos, which was meant to be included in a December referendum.
On 5 August, Ecuador President Daniel Noboa laid out seven questions to be included in the upcoming referendum. The final one focused on whether citizens would support the reopening of land-based casinos.
Ecuador is somewhat unique in that the country holds referenda relatively frequently. Questions focus on a wide array of topics.
The referenda give the public a chance to be involved in key decisions on topics including defence, finance and criminal law.
Casinos were banned in a 2011 referendum, but Noboa’s questions proposed the re-opening of land-based casinos based within five-star hotels, taxed at a rate of 25%. This would go towards the financing of programmes to fund school meals and combat chronic child malnutrition.
However, last week the constitutional court ruled the question didn’t meet its parameters for two reasons.
The first was that the preamble to the referendum question wasn’t clear enough to readers and would create confusion among voters as they lacked the required information to be able to answer properly.
The second reason for the exclusion of the question was that it touched on three topics, which were the reopening of land-based casinos, the creation of a new gambling tax and the specific allocation of tax proceeds.
With the three topics included in just one question, voters would have had limited freedom to disagree on certain aspects of the proposed law.
The constitutional court rejected the question in its current form, although the proposal could yet be amended to ensure it falls in line with Ecuador’s constitutional limits.
“With these decisions, this body ensures that proposals for amendments to the constitutional text and those for referendums respect constitutional limits and are formulated with clarity and loyalty to the voters,” the court said.
Another blow to land-based casinos prospects in Ecuador
This isn’t the first time Noboa has floated the idea of reopening casinos in Ecuador.
Last January, he scrapped a question for a 2024 referendum that again enquired about the possibility of reopening casinos.
According to Noboa, the president felt it was inappropriate to include the question due to the rising levels of civil unrest in Ecuador, with other questions on topics such as fighting organised crime remaining on the referendum.
However, Ecuador did make changes to its online sector during 2024, with 65 companies registering in H1 to pay the new 15% gross revenue tax, which came in on 1 July last year.
Under Executive Decree No 313, player winnings are now also subject to a 15% withholding tax.
The question on reopening land-based casinos could yet be included in December’s referendum, although not in its current form.