The operator of Casino Esquel in Chubut Province secretly sublicensed its online gambling permit to a third party without notifying the regulator, according to provincial authorities, in a case that could result in the termination of its concession.
Ramiro Ibarra, President of Lotería del Chubut, said the operator, Trewelyn, had entered into an undisclosed agreement to monetize its online license without actively operating it.
Ibarra said: “We discovered it had an agreement with a company not to use it, and in exchange it received a payment.”
The disclosure was made during a meeting in Esquel alongside Ignacio Torres, convened amid a labor dispute following the closure of the casino. The company had claimed its license was revoked, a statement Ibarra denied, clarifying that the concession remains valid through 2031.
According to the regulator, the online permit, held for around 18 months, was never used for operations. Instead, Trewelyn generated revenue through a third party without reporting the arrangement to the Instituto de Asistencia Social (IAS), which oversees the concession.
The regulator classified the arrangement as illegal under current rules and revoked the online license.
Authorities also identified additional compliance failures, including the unauthorized closure of the Trevelin casino and an incident involving minors accessing the gaming floor, which resulted in a formal warning. The operator was also found to have fallen behind on employee social security contributions, although it continued paying its concession fees.
With a mandatory 15-day conciliation period nearing its end and no response from the operator, Ibarra warned that failure to engage could trigger the termination of the land-based concession. In that scenario, the province would launch a new tender process for Casino Esquel, which officials estimate could take at least six months.
Trewelyn has operated Casino Esquel under a long-term provincial concession and was granted its online license as part of broader efforts to expand digital gambling in Chubut. However, it never launched an active online platform
