ES
IT
PT
DE
NL
Chile’s physical casino industry is working through a genuinely difficult stretch, according to the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego’s (SCJ) latest statistical bulletin: the sector’s 25 casinos, spread from Arica to Magallanes, generated UF 4,563,333 in revenue over the first four months of 2026 – 20 per cent below the UF 5,764,473 recorded over the same period in 2019, when 24 casinos were operating. Visitor numbers tell a similar story: 1.9 million visits so far this year, down 29 per cent from the 2.7 million recorded across 23 casinos in early 2019.
There’s a more encouraging detail buried in the numbers, though: average spend per visit is actually up roughly eight per cent over the same comparison period, suggesting the casinos that are drawing visitors are monetising them more effectively even as overall foot traffic has thinned – a sign of a maturing, more efficient customer base rather than a sector in freefall.
Diagnosing the decline: novelty wearing off, not demand disappearing
Francisco Leiva, Chile’s former Superintendent of Casinos de Juego (pictured) – now director of institutional relations at supplier association AgruGaming – pointed to the visitor decline as the more concerning of the two figures, and offered a specific read on its cause: land-based casinos built their early growth on novelty, and have since struggled to refresh their gaming and entertainment offering as consumer expectations have moved on. His prescription is less about defending the old model than expanding into the new one – arguing the sector’s clearest path forward is gaining access to online betting licences itself, which makes prompt regulation of that market a direct commercial priority for casino operators, not just an online-industry concern.
Cecilia Valdés, president of the Asociación de Casinos en Chile, framed the pressure similarly, pointing to both online betting platforms and illegal physical gambling as drawing users away without facing the same regulatory obligations licensed casinos operate under. Her call wasn’t for restricting the newer competition, but for a comprehensive fix: regulating online betting effectively while simultaneously modernising the rules governing licensed casinos, so the two sides of the industry aren’t left competing under fundamentally different constraints.
A moment of alignment
Valdés also connected the numbers to a broader fiscal point. Falling visitor counts reduce entry-tax collection, while lower gross revenue cuts into the specific tax that funds municipalities and regional governments – meaning the licensed casino sector’s slowdown has knock-on effects for regional development funding beyond the industry itself.
Taken together, the picture emerging from casino operators, suppliers and former regulators alike is notably consistent: land-based gaming’s structural challenge and online betting’s still-unregulated status are increasingly being framed as two sides of the same fix rather than competing interests. That alignment arrives at a pointed moment – Chile’s gaming regulator is itself mid-transition on leadership, and the same online betting bill these industry voices are pushing for would expand the Superintendencia’s own mandate to cover both markets directly. A modernised, unified regulatory framework, in other words, isn’t just what casino operators say they need – it’s the same institutional shift the regulator overseeing them is bracing to take on.
