Legislation

Chile – Chile extends municipal casino licenses

By Phil - 10 August 2015

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, has signed into law new regulations, which extend the licenses of the seven municipal casinos in Chile.

The new rules extend the licenses until December 2017 in the districts of Vina del Mar, Arica, Iquique, Puerto Varas, Coquimbo, Pucon and Puerto Natales, which all expired on December 31, 2015.

President Bachelet justified the new law by saying that the casinos in the municipalities already play a significant role in the communities where they are based. “In these communities the casino plays an important role in enriching tourism and culture and have become a very important source of income,” she said.

In addition, the statute provides that from that date onwards, those municipalities will continue to be a home to a casino for a total of three periods of fifteen years each. Once the last period expires, a license may be renewed for successive periods of fifteen, years unless it is opposed by the Resolution Council of Chile, which is a committee made up of members of the lower and upper house.

The new law comes as part of a wider package, which seeks to regulate the industry more closely, and the municipal casinos will eventually come under the supervision of the Gaming Control Board (SJC).
“This law does not only extend the presence of casinos in the local communities, alongside it are a number of modifications which have been made to the status of the operation of casinos which from 2018 will come under a single set of regulations,” the President said.

In this regard she went onto to say that all communities where they are located or will be located will receive an additional amount of revenue for their local budget.

Furthermore, the supervisory powers of the Chilean Gaming Control Board (SJC) will be increased and fines will be raised for those found to be operating outside the terms of their licenses.
In May 2015 the Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved a number of significant amendments to Chile’s gaming laws including the extension of municipal licenses for a further two years. The new act was an initiative of President Bachelet.

The issue of the municipal casinos has become increasingly urgent of late with local lawmakers concerned that they would soon lose out on millions of dollars of tax revenue from casinos located within their jurisdictions. The law also ensures the operational continuity of the municipal casinos and oversee the transitional phase while control is handed over to the Chilean Gaming Control Board (SJC).