Chile releases details of games of chance bill

Casinos in Arica, Iquique, Coquimbo, Viña del Mar, Pucón, Puerto Varas and Puerto Natales will face a new framework scenario, which could have an impact on the income of local governments. In order to avoid the decrease in tickets, during the administration of Sebastián Piñera a bill was analyzed, which in the end did not go through due to the lack of support by the Mayors of the Councils.

With the change of government, the so-called mayors started to establish bonds with the Ministers of the Michelle Bachelet administration, which bore fruits and resulted in a draft agreement between the parties. In the following weeks, the government will send the Congress a bill on the issue.

The legal initiative that the government is preparing will deliver the license indefinitely to stay in the same councils where they currently operate.  It means casino places will continue in Arica, Iquique, Coquimbo, Viña del Mar, Pucón, Puerto Varas and Puerto Natales.

Another point of debate was the way in which the revenue generated by the casinos would be distributed. At present, there are two types of licenses in the gaming industry: local licenses and the operating licenses granted by SCJ, and the main difference lies in collection.

That’s why the agreement established that, as casinos do under SCJ supervision, the concessionaire will have to pay a specific 20% tax, 10% will go to the city council where the casino is located a 10% to the regional government. Although city councils validated this point, it will be included in the project that the concessionairethat is awarded the operation will have to assure the council the resources they receive today are from the casinos.

Although the tender process will be in charge of SCJ, the mayors will participate in the writing and in the commission that will revise the process. As the extension established concludes December 31, 2015, it was also agreed that, once the project is approved, it will be given a 2-year deadline for SCJ to do the tender and so, once such process concludes, the industry will be under the same legislation, supervising the 24 casinos permitted by law.

The project has two main goals: first, to maintain for an indefinite period the venues of the casinos in the cities where they are currently operating, in order to favor tourism and not affect the income of such zones; the second goal is to distribute fairly the resources among all the councils in the same region.

In Chile, 24 casinos are allowed to operate, previous compliance of the requirements and conditions established by the present law. One in each region of the country and the rest to be distributed at a national level, with a maximum of three casinos in each region. In the Metropolitan Region, the installation of casinos will not be authorized.