Chile's SCJ relaunches tenders for two casino permits

Chile's Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) has begun a new process to award two casino operating permits, one from the quota available at national level and one from the reserve quota of the Aysén Region. The regulator said the procedure started through Exempt Resolutions No. 992 and No. 993, dated 14 October 2026, and was reported on 20 October. The technical bases were authorised through Exempt Resolutions No. 989 and No. 990 and are available, together with the application system and its user manual, on the SCJ's institutional website.

Interested parties have 120 working days to prepare and submit their technical and economic offers. The presentation hearing is scheduled for 12 April 2027 at 10:00 at the Superintendencia's offices at Morandé 360, fourth floor, Santiago. The schedule also provides a period of 10 working days for queries and requests for clarification, until 3 November, and the SCJ will have 15 days to answer the queries received. After the presentation hearing, the body will have up to 120 working days to evaluate the technical proposals under the methodology set out in the bases.

The call follows the SCJ's January 2026 declarations that the contests for the Coyhaique and Ancud casino permits were void, after it concluded that the applicant companies had not fully met the legal and regulatory requirements set out in the technical bases. In the Coyhaique process, Casinos de Juegos Coyhaique S.A., linked to Dreams and operator of the current casino, and Sociedad Río Simpson S.A., belonging to Grupo Meier, took part. For Ancud, in the Los Lagos Region, Sociedad Mirador Hueihuén S.A. submitted a bid. The authority ended the technical evaluations and declared both processes void without proceeding to the opening of economic offers.

The decision had judicial consequences. In March 2026, Casinos de Juegos Coyhaique, a company linked to Dreams, filed an illegality claim with the Court of Appeals of Santiago against the SCJ's resolution. The company challenged the exclusion of its offer over the absence of certain tax certificates and argued that the authority had applied the contest bases incorrectly.

The two permits will become available on the expiry of existing authorisations. In December 2024, the SCJ began a new award process for a casino operating permit in the Aysén Region, in view of the quota that will become available when the permit authorised to Casino de Juegos Coyhaique S.A. (Dreams) expires in April 2027. The national-level casino operating permit will become available when the permit authorised to Rantrur S.A. (Enjoy) expires in May 2027.

The Coyhaique and Ancud difficulties add to other processes that have ended without an award or without effective competition. In August 2026, the SCJ declared the tender to operate the Puerto Varas casino void after the proposals of Inversiones y Turismo Puerto Varas S.A., linked to Dreams, and Sociedad Quiquilhue S.A., related to Corporación Meier, did not fully meet the legal and regulatory requirements. The regulator said it would start a new process and define special conditions for the technical bases. That same month, the result of the tender for four locations, Iquique, Coquimbo, Viña del Mar and Pucón, again brought the current model into discussion. Iquique and Viña del Mar received no offers, while Coquimbo and Pucón received one proposal each, so none of the four locations recorded competition between bidders.