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Chile – Controversy continues over Chillán Casino
By Phil - 25 November 2015
Controversy continues to plague the tender process for the casino license in Chillán with claims emerging in local press that a report which was unfavourable to one of the bidders was not sent to the proper authorities in time.
According to local press the Chilean Gaming Control Board (SCJ) failed to submit a report which had been prepared by the SCJ’s legal team to the Ministry of Finance or the Resolution Council that would have ruled out local operator Marina del Sol.
According to the report, which was prepared in May, the company had not complied with the requirement to have in place the necessary legal financial support in terms of a bank guarantee during the tender process meaning that the company had defaulted “in this regard, since it constitutes a necessary precondition for the resolution of any request for the operation of a casino,” according to documents obtained by local daily El Mostrador.
The news will only add to the controversy which has surrounded the tender process since 2014. In July 2014 Dreams announced its decision to withdraw its application with company spokesman saying that that the process had been fraught with irregularities. Later in the same month a court put the tender process on hold after Bold-Peralada appealed to a local court claiming that the Regional Government had gone beyond its remit when awarding it 0 points while awarding 300 points to Marina del Sol. Lawyers acting on behalf of the company claimed that the Regional Government had no right to award points on the basis of technicalities. As a result the Chilean Gaming control Board (SJC) requested a report on the voting process in the Regional Council.
It was hoped that the issue would have been resolved by the end of September when the Chilean Gaming Control board (SJC) sent the two proposals to its Resolution Council of the SCJ. However the vote will now have to be repeated for a third time. This was after the Court of Appeals in the city of Concepción invalidated the vote made by regional councillors, who only approved the Marina del Sol project and rejected the Bold-Peralada Chillán Casino Resort. The Chillán Casino Resort tender was rejected primarily on the grounds that it is to be located close to educational centres.
The Resolution Council of the Chilean Gaming Control Board announced that starting in January 2014 it would begin the licensing process for a new casino after Termas de Chillán withdrew from the market in 2013. The Chilean Gaming Board officially accepted Termas de Chillán’s withdrawal in November 2013 after the operator blamed bad market conditions as well as the location of the casino for its decision to close.
