Gambling Magnet for the Rich or Money Pit?

Casino Troubles

The casino, however, hit a string of bad luck. In the late 1950s, Uruguay's golden age ended abruptly, converting the "Land of the Fat Cow" into a maelstrom of runaway inflation, labor strife and guerrilla warfare. In 1973, a military coup turned Uruguay, the "Switzerland of South America," into a brutal police state.

Visitors to the casino are greeted with the sight of a rusty entryway and a stained carpet.

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Uruguay recovered its democracy in 1984 and more recently achieved economic stability. The prison in Punta Carretas that once held Tupamaro guerrillas is now a shopping mall.

Despite the U.S. economic meltdown, Uruguay's economy grew 13.1 percent in the first half of the year, according to central bank data. Unemployment is down to 7.6 percent from a high of 17 percent during the 2002 regional economic crisis. Tourism reached 2.3 million in 1999, up from 491,000 in 1976, according to government figures. Earlier this month, the National Institute of Statistics said poverty had decreased by 4.7 percent in the first half of the year.

But the Carrasco Casino Hotel never reclaimed its mid-century glory. Today, the regal building is ringed by a 12-foot-high, corrugated metal fence.

Like Uruguay's historic railroad terminal, built by the British in downtown Montevideo, the casino complex's hotel is abandoned, the sea views from the upper floors obstructed by dusty, shattered glass.

The ground-level casino is still open, but its rusty entryway and stained carpeting give little hint of its rich past. On a recent Thursday afternoon, the game rooms were empty, except for a few locals leaning over a roulette table lit by a bronze chandelier or slumping at a bank of 10-cent slot machines with names like "Neon Nights" and "Cleopatra."

Last year, the casino brought in only $60,000, making the $540,000 generated by the decidedly low key, city-owned Parque Hotel casino -- attached to the headquarters of the Mercosur regional trading block -- seem like a windfall.

"It's an embarrassment," Rodriguez said. "In one of the most attractive neighborhoods in the capital, an entrance to the entire city, you find a building in terrible shape."