Restrained return for Chilean casinos following coronavirus closures

The collection of eleven private and state-run casinos in Chile reportedly chalked up aggregated gross gaming revenues of $5.9 million last month and paid roughly $1.8 million in combined taxes.

According to a Wednesday report from SBC Americas, casinos in the South American nation began re-opening from November 19 after being closed some eight months earlier due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The source cited official information from the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) regulator in detailing that these venues subsequently saw their daily December visitation numbers drop by 57.2% year-on-year to produce revenues that were some 43.6% lower when compared with the same 31-day period in 2019.

Tolerable tariffs:

Chile is reportedly home to nine privately-owned casinos in addition to a pair of municipally-run gambling venues encompassing the Casino de Colchagua, Enjoy Antofagasta, Casino del Pacifico, Enjoy Santiago, Luckia Arica, Ovalle Casino and Resort, Enjoy Coquimbo, Sun Monticello, Enjoy Vina Del Mar, Marina del Sol Calama and Antay Casino and Hotel. These properties purportedly paid some $715,000 in gambling duties and charged around $133,000 in ‘entrance taxes’ last month while moreover making about $950,000 in value-added tax (VAT) contributions.

Coming consideration:

The Bloomberg news service reported that Chile opened its casino industry to private operators in 2005 with companies including Sun International Limited from South Africa and Spain’s Peralada Group receiving 15-year licenses and subsequently going on to become major players in the nation of 17.6 million people. However, these operations in South America’s richest country are now purportedly under threat after the government announced last month that it will be initiating a bidding process from October that is to see the highest bidders receive the ensuing raft of concessions.