Enjoy made an analysis on the preferences of the Chilean player

The Chilean industry has been reconfigured. From being just gambling venues in the past, they are now integral projects, adding restaurants, convention halls and even an ice staking rink, which has attracted many people that were not frequent visitors to casinos. Now, there are three types of customers that visit gambling venues, according to Pier-Paolo Zaccarelli, manager of investments and finance of Enjoy, the biggest casino operator in Chile, and aims to start quoting in the stock market next July 8th.

The newest players are those that assist to extra installations of the casinos, such as the hotel or the convention center,  whose aim is not gambling, precisely. The others are social players, that go to the casinos because they are part of its entertaining system, added to the other alternatives they offer.

Professionals, "pure players,” according to Zaccarelli, are two well defined groups: those who prefer slots, a growing group that spends us$ 96,14 every time it goes to the casino, and those who prefer table games, including bingo, whose average expense is us$ 384.

These are pure players that represent an important percentage of the business. Men and women, between 40 and 45 years, depending on the type of game, are not divided in socio-economic classes any more, comments the executive of Enjoy, because the middle class has been allocating more entertaining resources as long as the GDP per person increases.

Chileans prefer playing slots more than card games. This betting format has the 75% of the preferences, while table games, poker, black jack and other games have the remaining 25%.

Chileans prefer machines for, at least, three reasons: one, because it is a game in which the player is alone, eliminating the factor of having to dominate a game in order to win or "scene-panic", as Zaccarelli says. Two, because there is a wider offer of machines than table games, and three, because new generations that go to casinos are more accustomed to technology.

In table games, the king is poker, so far. Blackjack and roulette used to dominate games, but in the latest years, poker has won big fans, commented Zaccarelli, growing from 10% of the preferences until current 40%.

The system has been changing. Before that, the customer played against the casino and, as long as he has been gaining experience, he has dared play against others. Internet gaming has been one of the key boosters of the phenomenon. Due to this great market niche, new tournaments have been created.

The trend of new forms of gaming does not defer much from the current preferences. Zaccarrelli says that, in international trade events, some changes have been seen in the way of playing, more than the beginning of a new format. It is the computing of the tables,  where, even in some cases, a digital display would do all the job, without croupiers, cards and chips. Something similar happens with slots. The novelty will be the machines that download new games, changing from the current format to pre-loaded slots with one or two modalities.