Chile casino operator Enjoy names Carolina Gálvez Fuentes as new general manager
Gálvez Fuentes will succeed Esteban Rigo-Righi from January 1.
Chile.- The board of the Chilean casino operator Enjoy SA has promoted Carolina Gálvez Fuentes to the position of general manager, effective from January 1. She will replace Esteban Rigo-Righi, who has been at the company for 14 years.
Gálvez Fuentes has been at Enjoy since September 2018 and currently works in investor relations at the casino group. Rigo-Righi has been with Enjoy since 2010. He rose through several positions, from planning and management control manager to CFO and CEO.
Rigo-Righi was appointed as general manager this year to lead the company through its reorganisation. His departure has been announced in a filing to the Chilean Financial Markets Commission (CMF).
Enjoy’s restructuring involves the creation of two new companies: NewCo-1, managing casino operations in the Uruguayan coastal city of Punta del Este and two real estate assets in Chile, and NewCo-2 operating the brand’s casinos and hotels in Chile (Rinconada, Antofagasta, Chiloé, Viña del Mar, Coquimbo, Pucón, and Puerto Varas). All other assets, including those in San Antonio and Los Angeles, will stay under Enjoy SA.
The restructuring was demanded by creditors after Enjoy ditched plans to merge with Dreams SA after the Chilean competition authority raised concerns over municipal casino contracts. Both parties along with Marina del Sol have been accused of collusion in the bidding process by the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office, FNE, which is calling for the imposition of fines and the forfeiture of casino licenses.
Meanwhile, the year is coming to a close with no advances in the planned reforms of gambling legislation in Chile. A new regulatory framework is proposed for both land-based gambling and online gambling, but the monopoly operators Loteria Concepción, Polla Chilena and Teletrak have filed legal challenges against the proposals.
In a lawsuit lodged in July, Polla Chilena is demanding CLP 2.70bn (€250m) in compensation and damages from Entel, Claro, Telefónica, GTD Manquehue, VTR and Wom. It notes that late last year, the court had ruled that online gambling should be considered illegal pending advances in legislation and had ordered ISPs to block internet access to unlicensed gambling sites.
