Next March 21st, the Chilean Casino Superintendence (SCJ) will organize the second version of the seminar "Playing for Development." The meeting, which will take place in the General Comptroller of the Republic, will gather the main actors of the industry with the aim to debate two issues: the impact and the contribution that the operators can make for their communities and how they involve with a responsible gaming policy, said the Superindentent Vivien Villagrán.

In her second year in the position, the audit casino authority, who assumed February 20th, 2017, and was appointed by former president Michelle Bachelet, said that SCJ has the focus on the ellaboration of the foundations for the re-tender of the 14 casinos of the so-called "new industry".

The new industry means all the casinos that emerged in 2005, protected by the new law (number 19,995) that weren't part of the local casinos. The licenses in the new industry will expire between 2023 and 2025, but, according to the law, the foundations of the new process should be ready by July 2020.

"The process should be more competitive," thinks Vivien Villagrán, saying that the recent tender of the seven local casino licenses, to which only two offerors applied -Enjoy and Sun Dreams -for five venues- and other two remained empty (Arica and Puerto Natales.)

For the next process, explains Villagrán, the law releases them from two requirements: there won´t be "special conditions" such as infrastructure demanded by local councils, and there won´t be a minimum offer required. "There is an economic offer, but there won´t be a minimum guaranteed," she adds. "The main companies have never arrived in Chile"

The next tender process will be held in a totally different scenario compared to the first tender process, in 2005, where 48 projects applied for 17 casinos. The two-digit casino growth does not exist anymore. According to numbers until January 2019, in 12 months, total income of the industry ("new industry" casinos plus local casinos) increased only 5.1%.

Another reason is the progressive market concentration, due to the withdrawal from operators, specially foreign ones. The last was Latin Gaming (from Panama), which completed in February the sale of its casinos in Los Ángeles and San Antonio to Enjoy. It just keeps operating in Arica. "They are closing their operations. They are rethinking their businesses in other countries. They manage casinos, and the model we have in Chile requires the hotel management and the real estate business as well, so it needs another expertise they do not want to develop."

Nowadays, the industry is operated by two big actors, Enjoy and Sun Dreams, which have almost the 80% of the market, according to SCJ, followed by Marina del Sol. Is there room for more operators in the country? "It has been a concern since I took the position at the Superintendence. I want more operators, but that wish has a restriction, linked to the market characteristics: size, geographic distribution, scale economies," she answers.

So she affirms that some operators are developing strategies in order to attract younger players to casinos, with more interactive games. "The main casino companies worldwide have never arrived in Chile. They are concentrated in jurisdictions such as Nevada and Macau."

She then comments that, compared to Nevada, "the Chilean market is a 4,4%, and if I compare it at a worldwide level, it represents a 0,43%. So a company based in a market such as Macau, which grows around 15%, will not consider the Chilean market."

The superintendent reminds that the new licenses, which will have a 15-year validity, were granted to the region in which they are located, but an offeror might apply for a project in another city or another location.

In the case of Arica or Puerto Natales, the advantage is that the tender process will have a validity of 45 years. She then adds an important change: when a tender process is declared void for the second time, the SCJ might open a place in a different region.