Chile Casinos Superintendent analyzes the opening of 14 new casinos in two years’ time

According to the authority, that last week it was inaugurated the new casino in San Antonio, and before the end of the year, Rinconada de Los Andes casino will be opened, and in 2011, the venues in Ovalle, Castro and Coyhaique, so the flourishing industry would add 18 totally new facilities.

He was asked about the controversy with local casinos. He affirms that "the seven local tenders, that are casinos generated by particular laws from 1928 to 1990, the law allowed them to extend those contracts until December 31st 2015, so new places will be generated at that moment.”

For such places, the SCJ will call to a tender process to grant those permits, a measure that is still firm, despite the intention of several local councils to try to modificate it.

"We think the law is clear on the matter, there is no margin of error. The law indicates that the seven local casinos will stop operating on January 1st, 2016, and at that moment, they incorporate to the legal frame under the SCJ control and regulation", says Leiva, in spite of the fact that "the mayors of those seven casinos are considering that there should be a modification in the legal body in order to keep on having the same legal status that they currently have”.

The current casino law taxes with a 20% of the gross gaming income to the new casinos, "however, in the case of local casinos, the amount that the private party must pay to the local council depends on which has been the economic offer made at the moment it applied for the concession to which the local government called to tender, and that’s why reality shows that the way and the amount paid is very different.”

The 18 new casinos demand a strong presence in the control of civil service, so SCJ demand is big. However, the institution just counts with 35 professionals, less than 2%.

In spite of that, Leiva declared: "We are operating properly. It is good to remember that, in order to develop our job and in particular, the fiscalization, we have established a collaboration agreement in technical assistance with the department of the US Treasury, to start trainning our officers.”

With regards to economic offenses, the head of SCJ points that the institution does not have to control that subject. "Each authority has to comply with their role. SCJ role is to control the gaming operation, and the issue of possible crimes belongs to the Public Ministy”

“It recognizes certain levels of coordination among both entities, because it is a new industry that requires constant trainning. "We have organized meetings for them to know (the Public Ministry) what does the casino operation means, because it is a new industry, but the investigative role in terms of crime situations is not the SCJ role.”