Supplier News
Chile – Enjoy and Marina del Sol take court action
By Phil - 15 August 2016
As forecast the battle between Chilean operators and the Chilean Gaming Control Board (SJC) has worsened over the new tender process for the municipal casino licences.
Chilean operator Enjoy and Chilean-Canadian Marina del Sol have both now resorted to the courts in order to challenge certain aspects of the new licensing process for the seven municipal casino licences now on offer which they argue are illegal and unfair. According to local press reports, Chilean courts have now received a total of six appeals on the grounds of unconstitutionality filed by local operators which combined could grind the licensing process to a halt.
Casinos del Sol which operates casinos in Concepción, Calama and Osorno, are seeking to halt the bidding process and has filed four appeals to local courts over the licence process over the municipal casinos in Iquique, Coquimbo, Viña del Mar and Puerto Varas. At the same time while the Court of Appeals dismissed the claims against the SJC filed by Enjoy in May, the case is still being actively pursued by the company in the courts via an appeal for reconsideration.
In May Enjoy, which currently operates the municipal casino in Coquimbo, filed an appeal on the grounds of unconstitutionality arguing in its written statement to the court that the board had acted “with arbitrariness” and had made a number of “serious” errors. This was, they argued, because the SJC had acted outside its own jurisdiction as it had responded to questions concerning the technical basis of the bidding rules and on its own initiative had made a number of clarifications.
According to the brief, the invasion of powers on behalf of the SJC concerned the addition of special conditions to the granting of the tender process. These additional obligations are related to the eventual transfer of property in favour of the respective municipality where the casino is located. Combined this, the company argues, constituted a “gross” infringement of laws laid down not only by the constitution, but in Chile’s gaming laws as well as municipal and state laws and constituted a threat to property rights as well as the principle of equality before the law.
Lawyer acting on behalf of the company Guillermo De La Jara in the latest written appeal to the courts stated that if the municipal government is given the option over the property to do with it what it pleases “without any clear rules then it violates the guarantees provided for in Article 19 No. 24 of the Constitution.”
The SJC has defended its actions in local press saying that companies were “entitled” to file complaints to the courts and that they were commonplace in this type of process but pointed out that “the development of the Rules and Regulations for this process were conducted with industry participation and the collaboration of a number of public and private stakeholders, so as to safeguard the principles of transparency and competitiveness.”
