The deputy insisted on the closure after a supposed corruption case was revealed.
Uruguay.- The situation of the Casino Parque Hotel, which is managed by the Montevideo Municipality, remains under scrutiny after it was revealed that 55 municipal employees received, in addition to their salaries, overtime pay, even while the casino was closed due to the Covid-19 health emergency.
Deputy Martín Lema, a potential white party candidate for the Montevideo Municipality in the upcoming elections, again requested the immediate closure of the casino. "We will demand once more that the Municipal Casino be closed, it cannot remain open another minute," Lema demanded at a press conference.
The deputy also criticized the Mayor of Montevideo, Mauricio Zunino, for meeting in Buenos Aires with former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Zunino said: "[the mayor] must step foot in Uruguay and at that moment order the closure of the Municipal Casino" and assured that the casino is a "hole resulting from poor management."
It is worth remembering that in recent days, a request for access to information made by the local media El País uncovered a case of alleged corruption. Both in 2020 and 2021, years in which the Casino Parque Hotel was largely non-operational or operating at 50 percent capacity, its employees were paid a total of UYU214,256 (USD 5,060) the first year and UYU284,722 (USD6,725) the second. A total of 668 overtime hours were paid in 2020 and 798 in 2021.
However, this is not the first time that the municipal casino has faced criticism from the opposition. In August, the latest balance of the Montevideo Municipality (IMM) was revealed, showing that the Casino Parque Hotel, managed by the Municipality, reportedly posted red numbers in 2023, which sparked controversy over the management of the casino.
At that time, Lema presented a written exposition to the chamber of representatives asking the IMM to "end the management of the Municipal Casino and redistribute its resources to other truly priority areas."
Lema's position sparked the rejection of the Association of Professional Casino Employees (ADEP) and the Association of Administrative Employees of Municipal Casinos (Afacm).
From ADEP, a clear and serious improvement plan was demanded for the municipal casinos, which includes staff entry, the operation of gaming tables, extended cafeteria hours, parking improvements, and a series of marketing actions to promote the venue.
Regarding this, Mayor Zunino highlighted that the Departmental Casino System as a whole is profitable, especially considering the leased spaces and operations managed directly by the Municipality: "All the data is in the financial statements, which were recently approved by the Board. When the system is analyzed as a whole, it is profitable and is supported by a validated balance."
