Chile: Enjoy Casinos Report 535% Revenue Increase
Enjoy, the successful Chilean casino chain, recently shared that it took in 535% more in earnings than during the first half of 2021. This was a part of its most recent revenue report, which focused on the first six months of 2022. The year-on-year stats are impressive, but the report also goes into further detail about the company’s various gains and losses in 2022 thus far. Enjoy is currently being investigated along with possible merger partner Dreams, another casino brand.
Enjoy’s casino chain has finally experienced significant recovery post-pandemic as it reports on its earnings in H1 2022. Ibrahim Rifath/Unsplash
Enjoy’s revenue increases in 2022
As companies throughout LATAM and the world report their half-year earnings, Chile’s Enjoy casino brand has far exceeded many in its revenue increases. According to the recent public report, Enjoy brought in $117.7 million USD during H1 2022. This represents a staggering increase in comparison to the same time period in 2021, when the country was still largely suffering from Covid-19 pandemic-related closures throughout the gaming industry.
Previously, Enjoy reported that its revenue in H1 2021 was merely $27 million USD. This sum, though it includes both income from its Chilean and Uruguayan gaming houses, was certainly considered an understandable loss in the midst of lockdown measures that severely hindered the land-based casino industry.
Likewise, Enjoy reported a decrease in losses when comparing between the two time periods in 2022 and 2021. In H1 2021, Enjoy lost over $47 million USD, a significant figure considering its limited earnings in the same year. During H1 2022, the casino company only reported $29.2 million USD in losses, a figure in line with a recovery trend in the gaming industry as a whole, since Covid-19 concerns have gradually lessened.
Local news outlet Diario Financiero covered the story and likewise indicated that the opening up of casinos since the pandemic is the primary reason Enjoy has been able to generate increased income this year. Casinos were able to fully reopen as of August 2021, with the exception of the Municipal Casino of Natales. Before that, casinos had been largely inaccessible since the start of the pandemic.
Though Enjoy is well-known in Chile, where it currently seeks to merge with fellow casino operator Dreams, Uruguay is also an important region for its business. The reopening of Punta del Este to tourists, for example, has been a book to the company, as well as the local economy.
Enjoy and Dreams investigated by FNE in Chile
For the last month, executives from both Enjoy and Dreams have been waiting to hear what will come of an investigation in Chile by the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) into the companies’ proposed merger. Apparently FNE is looking into possible collusion between the companies’ higher management.
The issue revolves around the question of free trade and anti-monopoly measures in Chile. There has always been some concern about the effect of the merger on the free market in the country, since they will jointly take hold of a majority of Chile’s casino dealings. However, the merger had been cleared and set to progress until the investigation cropped up this summer.
Executives from both companies have experienced their houses raided and equipment like laptops and cell phones taken by authorities. Company spokespersons maintain that both Enjoy and Dreams are not aware of why the investigation is taking place now, and that they have always acted fairly and within the parameters of the law to conduct their business.
