Chile’s Superintendence of Casinos and Gaming (SCJ) has launched a new tender for the Iquique casino after the early exit of Dreams, significantly lowering the minimum annual guaranteed payment to the municipality.
Under the previous concession, the city received 234,777 Unidades de Fomento (UF, an inflation-indexed unit of account used in Chile) per year, equivalent to more than CLP 19bn ($21m) annually. The new bidding floor has been reduced to 68,000 UF, representing a 71% drop in guaranteed revenue.
The reduction appears aimed at restoring financial viability after years of aggressive licensing commitments that strained operators across Chile’s casino sector.
Industry observers note that high fixed payments, combined with post-pandemic demand shifts and rising operating costs, weakened balance sheets and forced restructuring across multiple concessions.
According to local reports, the new tender framework includes labor continuity requirements. The incoming operator must retain at least 80% of the current workforce and assume certain employment-related obligations during the transition. The concession will also require investment in tourism infrastructure within the commune.
For Iquique, the impact is significant. The casino has historically been one of the municipality’s largest revenue sources and a key employer in the Tarapacá region. The city must now adjust its fiscal projections to roughly one-third of its previous guaranteed intake while seeking a financially stable new operator.
The original Iquique casino project by Dreams was formally abandoned after the site allocated for development was declared a historical monument, and the operator renounced its permit to build a new facility, clearing the way for the current rebid process
