The Municipality of Guayaquil sealed the Club del Sol casino for the second time in 2026, citing alleged operating license violations just weeks after a court had ordered the venue to reopen following an earlier closure in February.
The Club del Sol operates inside the Hotel Sheraton in northern Guayaquil and is formally linked to the Fundación Ecuatoriana de Fibrosis Quística (FQEC). However, according to the organization’s own legal counsel, the venue is not operated directly by the foundation but instead by Sunsetbet, a company financed by US-based firm Renewal Engineering Services.
That structure sits at the center of the legal dispute. Ecuador prohibited gambling through a national referendum in 2011, while Article 236 of the country’s criminal code sanctions the use of nonprofit entities as fronts for for-profit commercial activity.
The FQEC has maintained that its operations serve charitable purposes and that revenue generated by the venue helps fund medical programs for cystic fibrosis patients. Regulators and municipal authorities, however, have so far contested that argument and rejected the distinction made by the foundation between a “gaming center” and a casino.
Isabel Franco Romero, president of the FQEC, has not yet made any public statements regarding the venue’s second closure.
It was not the first time the venue had faced enforcement action. In February, Guayaquil’s Directorate of Justice and Oversight shut down Club del Sol after finding it was operating without the required LAFE permit or municipal authorizations.
At the time, the foundation managing the venue argued that the establishment should not be classified as a casino and described it instead as a “gaming center” whose proceeds were directed toward charitable and medical initiatives. Municipal authorities rejected that interpretation and proceeded with the closure regardless.
A court subsequently suspended the shutdown order, allowing the venue to reopen on March 5 before authorities moved to seal it again weeks later.
Ecuador's 2011 referendum that banned casinos and slot machines was part of a broader popular consultation promoted by then-President Rafael Correa
