Chile gross gaming revenue remains below 2019 levels in Q1
Chile’s Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego has released its first quarter results for 2022, with casinos in the country recording CLP132.56bn ($152m/£124m/€145m) in gross gaming revenue, while visitor numbers showed little change since 2021.
While the result is approximately four times higher than 2021, when covid-19 precautions limited the operations of the casinos, and 12.2% higher than the first quarter of 2020 - when the casinos operated normally until they closed on March 18 - it is still 6.4% lower than the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, adjusted for inflation.
The results continue then the trend of recovery from the pandemic, but with the caveat that the sector still has not totally regained its former size.
This can be seen also in the recorded visitor numbers to the casinos: the 1,482,736 people registered represents only 54% of the numbers before the virus. The influx has also stabilised; the 494,245 monthly average has seen little change to the 491,128 that visited the casinos monthly in the same period in 2021.
The report comes out during a period of consolidation in the sector with the merger of Chilean Casinos Enjoy and Dreams in January. Enjoy, the surviving company, now controls 58% of industry activity.