CASINOS Casinos were a presence in Ecuador for more than 50 years before they were banned. Concentrated in Quito and the port of Guayaquil, they operated at considerable scale under a framework anchored in five-star hotels. Tey ceased to exist after a referendum held in May 2011 under the administration of the left wing populist Rafael Correa, president from 2007 to 2017. Correa had been campaigning openly against the sector for
While Ecuador begins 2026 in a better economic position than at any point since the pandemic, the country still faces significant obstacles to growth. Te Central Bank of Ecuador puts expansion at around 3.8 per cent for 2025 and projects 2.5 per cent for 2026, with inflation, anchored by the dollar, running at under two per cent. However, estimates of the size of the recovery vary. Te Central Bank of Ecuador puts 2025 expansion at around 3.8 per cent and projects 2.5 per cent for 2026. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund's April 2026 World Economic Outlook forecasts 1.7 per cent. President Guillermo Lasso officially ended his presidency
on November 25, 2023, following the inauguration of his successor, Daniel Noboa. Lasso had triggered early elections in May 2023 by to dissolve the National Assembly and avoid an imminent impeachment trial. Following the early elections, President Daniel Noboa, was re-elected by an 11-point margin in April 2025 and inaugurated for his first full four-year term on May 24. For decades, according to the International Crisis Group,
Ecuador was "an oasis of calm as its South American neighbours descended into drug-related crime and conflict." Tis is no longer the case. Indeed, changes to the sports
betting sector and the attempt to legalise casinos as a way to boost tourism have come in the context of considerable political and economic upheaval. While Noboa's iron-fist approach had brought murder rates down at first that crime had since continued unabated. According to the International Crisis Group’s November
2025 report, “Paradise Lost? Ecuador's Battle with Organised Crime,” the country is now “transforming into a hub of the drug trade to Europe” and has become one of the most violent in the region. Te year 2025 closed as the deadliest in Ecuadorian history, with 9,216 intentional homicides - an increase of 30 per cent on an already catastrophic year, as described by CNN. Alarmingly, the first half of 2025 alone saw more than 4,500 killings, making it the bloodiest six-month period ever recorded in the country.
at least a year, warning that Ecuador should not follow Peru, which in his view was "flooded" with gambling halls "even in the Amazon jungle", and arguing that the ban would stop a father of a family losing his wages to "the vice of gambling". Te question on casinos and gambling halls was one of
several put to Ecuadorians in the consultation which was approved by 52.34 per cent of the vote. Operators had initially been led to believe they would have two further years to recoup their investment but the ban came into effect pretty much straightaway - March 2012. Industry estimates put the number of gambling halls
operating in Ecuador on the eve of the ban at around 160, with as many as 25,000 jobs across casinos, bingos and ancillary employment. However the Ministry of Tourism on the day of closure recorded a much lower figure of 32 formal casinos and roughly 2,000 workers jobless under the decree. Te issue of whether or not casinos should be allowed
returned after Daniel Noboa took office at the end of 2023. In January 2024 the new president sent the Constitutional Court eleven questions for a popular consultation on security, justice and employment. Te eleventh, attached as an annex, would have asked whether voters agreed with allowing the operation of casinos, game rooms, betting houses and other gambling businesses under conditions to be set out in law. On 17 January 2024, the Noboa government informed the
Constitutional Court that it was withdrawing the casinos question from the popular consultation, while ratifying the other ten questions. Te president argued that “the citizen debate related to this issue is not appropriate at this time.” Tis decision came in the immediate aftermath of a wave of gang related violence, including the storming of a public television studio in Guayaquil during a live broadcast, after which Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” and ordered security forces to “neutralise” the country’s criminal gangs. Te overall fear was amongst lawmakers that the return of
casinos could be used by organised crime to launder money. Significantly Correa's foreign minister Ricardo Patiño used this
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