As anticipated, there has been keen interest from investors for the 17 new casino licences authorised by the change in Chile’s gaming law. On Wednesday the first stage of the bidding was completed, with companies submitting proposals for as many of the licences as they wished. The next stage will be for the proposals to become final firm projects for all or some of the regions chosen by 4 August. The 17 licences are for all the regions of Chile except the Santiago Metropolitan region, will be a maximum of 3 in any one region and must be at least 45 miles apart.

The recently appointed Superintendent of Casinos had predicted that 60 proposals would be submitted and he was not far wrong. By the time to submit proposals expired, 61 official bids had been made. The time to formalise the projects is now running, and the companies involved will be assessing their competition and deciding whether to pursue all their options. Final applications must include details of the anticipated amount of investment, architectural plans, a tourism impact study and a bank guarantee of 5% of the estimated investment.

Amongst confirmed prospective investors are Thunderbird Gaming (7 proposals), Cirsa (7 proposals), Hamburg Holding (6 proposals) and from Chile the Fischer and Martinez family businesses (5 proposals each). The Chilean gaming regulators will have the backing of European and North American regulators in the task of making the final selection for the 17 licences, particularly in the process of tracking the antecedents of the bidding companies. The check will be thorough and precise to ascertain the origin of the finance and the complete background of all the people involved within the corporate chains of the companies.

Over more than two years the Chilean authorities have endeavoured to actively seek the best way to legislate and regulate for an expanded gaming industry. After exhaustive searches and completion of the selection process, the 17 new casino licences are expected to stimulate the industry and bring regeneration to the regions of Chile. (E-07.08.05)

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