In Chile, the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SJC) gaming regulator was reportedly due to hold a meeting on Friday to analyze bids from those interested in operating a new casino due to be licensed for the central city of Pucon.

According to a report from G3Newswire, the SJC has also been tasked with picking the firms to run coming casinos for the cities of Puerto Natales, Iquique, Arica, Coquimbo, Puerto Varas and Vina Del Mar with the ultimate licensees due to be selected by the end of next month based on their abilities to stimulate the economies of host areas.

The SJC’s Vivien Villagran Acuna reportedly told G3Newswire that the Pucon contest has the nearest deadline while the regulator intended to conduct an initial ‘technical evaluation’ of the many bids yesterday before moving on to discuss their various economic qualities at a later date.

“We have a meeting with the deciding council basically to generate the final proposal for the technical evaluation of the bids,” Acuna reportedly told G3Newswire on Wednesday. “Once that happens and it is validated by the council…[we will] generate a resolution that indicates exactly what the scores are. That resolution [will then be] published and the opening of economic bids [will be] called.”

G3Newswire reported that the seven coming casinos were authorized as part of 2005 legislation that has so far seen the Chilean casino market add eleven fresh venues. These new privately-operated properties purportedly produced aggregated gross gaming revenues of just over $48.75 million for March, which represented a decline of 0.9% year-on-year, while their seven state-run counterparts saw their own monthly tally top $20.69 million.