Gamble on Anything in Uruguay
Four men anxiously watched the circing flies in a tense, smoke-filled hotel room. Below the buzzing insects were four sugar lumps,, each coated with a drop of honey, set in a neat row on a table. Suddenly, one of the flies zoomed lower, made a few tight circles, and landed on the second lump. "That's mine," one of the men exultantly crowed as he collected money from the three unlucky gamblers. The incident is not unusual for gambling-crazy Uruguayans. Without something to gamble on, they feel as lost as a French starlet in a 1920 bathing suit. Some forms of gambling, such as official lotteries—five per week are national institutions. From the wealthy fans who spend hundreds of dollars weekly in tickets, to housewives who pinch pennies from the family budget, everybody aims at lotteries to get rich quickly. Several millionaires are born each year this way. Gambling casinos attract more crowds than soccer matches. On a Saturday night only the strongest elbows can clear a way to one of the 23 roulette or baccart tables in Montevideo's Parque Hotel, "the biggest of the nine legal gambling casinos in this country of three million people. State Operated Lotteries and casinos are owned and operated by the state.. Although no official figures are available, the state is reported to draw from them roughly the equivalent of 8 per cent of the national income.
Lottery earnings go to help support free medical assistance in welfare-state Uruguay. Besides legal gambling, illicit but more or less tolerated poker and dice games flourish everywhere. Also greatly favored are Spanish card games like monte, gofo and truco, as well as some local inventions. Uruguay, a peaceful and democratic heaven in explosive Latin America, is better known abroad as the place where "canasta" was invented by some members of the staid but gambling-plagued Jockey Club. Blooms in Jails Montevideo has three weekly horse racing meetings at two tracks the year round. Sometimes, impatient Uruguay, ans try'to give luck a hand. Last summer an alert official ofa casino in Punta del Este beach resort started watching a group of gamblers who won too much too regularly. It turned out that the gamblers had teamed with some croupiers who expertly fixed the packs of cards at the baccarat tables, letting the gamblers know in advance how the cards were going to come up. The gang reportedly had netted a few hundred thousand dollars at several casinos before the police transferred them from the fancy seaside hotels they used to patronize to new, iron-barred lodgings. But gambling blooms in Uruguay an jails too.
Lottery earnings go to help support free medical assistance in welfare-state Uruguay. Besides legal gambling, illicit but more or less tolerated poker and dice games flourish everywhere. Also greatly favored are Spanish card games like monte, gofo and truco, as well as some local inventions. Uruguay, a peaceful and democratic heaven in explosive Latin America, is better known abroad as the place where "canasta" was invented by some members of the staid but gambling-plagued Jockey Club. Blooms in Jails Montevideo has three weekly horse racing meetings at two tracks the year round. Sometimes, impatient Uruguay, ans try'to give luck a hand. Last summer an alert official ofa casino in Punta del Este beach resort started watching a group of gamblers who won too much too regularly. It turned out that the gamblers had teamed with some croupiers who expertly fixed the packs of cards at the baccarat tables, letting the gamblers know in advance how the cards were going to come up. The gang reportedly had netted a few hundred thousand dollars at several casinos before the police transferred them from the fancy seaside hotels they used to patronize to new, iron-barred lodgings. But gambling blooms in Uruguay an jails too.