Total ban and its consequences (Venezuela)

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1) Regulatory "point zero": what happened before the ban

Until 2011, the offline casino and bingo market worked according to the 1997 law ("Ley para el Control de los Casinos, Salas de Bingo y Máquinas Traganíqueles") and its regulations of 1998: the law determined the permit regime, sanctions and supervision of the National Casino Commission; objects, as a rule, were located in tourist areas and at hotels.

2) End of 2011: Political decision on "total closure"

The authorities ordered the closure of all casinos and bingo. Hugo Chavez himself called them "lugares de perdición" ("places of vice"), emphasizing the moral and political motivation of the step. The regulator at that time revoked permits and closed most of the existing halls.

3) Socio-economic impact of the ban

Employment. According to the STBCV casino and bingo workers union, the ban led to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs; in some publications the figure of ≈100 000 direct and indirect places appears. This is reflected in the reports of 2011-2012.

Tourism and services. The closure of the "anchor" halls at hotels reduced the load of the number of rooms and the associated F & B/event segment (which would later become the argument of the authorities for "restarting" for the sake of foreign exchange earnings). This shift was captured by industry and general media.

Enforcement and "grey area." Industry reviews noted that administration was going on in bulk - along with problem areas, solvent ones were also closed. In parallel, part of the demand went into informal formats and offshore online.

4) Long Freeze (2012-2019)

Land casinos remained closed for nearly a decade. Online frameworks for gambling never appeared at the level of a separate federal law/registry (unlike neighboring Colombia), fueling offshore access and fragmented practices. Regional publications and industry resources regularly wrote about this regulatory "void."

5) Reversal of course: 2020-2021

January 2020. Nicolas Maduro announced a casino in the capital's Hotel Humboldt, where they planned to bet in the state cryptocurrency Petro (PTR), and send the proceeds to healthcare and education. It became a symbol of "defrosting."

September 2021. The authorities gave the green light to the return of the casino: specialized media reported "about 30" permits to launch halls around the country after a ten-year hiatus.

6) What the experience of a complete ban showed - results and lessons

1. Social cost. A quick administrative "switch" dealt a severe blow to employment and related services, and the restoration of personnel and infrastructure years later turned out to be expensive.

2. Gray sentence substitution. The demand for the game has not disappeared - it has migrated to informal and offshore, where the state has less leverage to protect the consumer and collect fees.

3. Tourist logic. The combination of "casino + hotel + events" (characteristic of the 1997 framework) turned out to be critical for the regional capitals; that is why the "tourist" argument has become key in the rhetoric of the "restart" of 2020-2021.

4. Political reversibility. The ban was dictated by the ideology and social agenda of the "zero," but the economic crisis of the 2020s forced the authorities to reconsider their approach - up to scenarios with crypto calculations and point resolutions.

7) What's next (2025 forward)

Partial "reverse" of the ban does not cancel key challenges: transparency of permits, technical control of halls (interconnection), protection of players and the certainty of the online segment, which still does not have a single national framework. If these elements are institutionalized, the state's "tourist" rate could have a sustained effect; if not, the shadow migration of demand will continue. The conclusions of 2021 on the return of the casino and the post-2020 rhetoric of the authorities confirm precisely the pragmatic motive: foreign exchange earnings and employment.

The total ban of 2011 in Venezuela was a political decision with a high social price: tens of thousands of lost jobs, a decline in offline tourism and the growth of "gray" channels. From 2020-2021, a partial departure from the ban began - through the symbolic Humboldt/Petro project and "about 30" permits - but the sustainability of this trajectory depends on how the state formalizes transparent rules and controls, especially online. Otherwise, the pendulum between prohibition and "reactivation" will continue to rock the industry.