At the end of February, Chile was rocked by an earthquake that registered nearly 8.8 on the Richter scale. This has been a devastating year in many parts of the world as we still have not fully recovered from the devastation that occurred in Haiti. Aid is still going out to this country and now Chile has suffered severe damage. Many businesses including casinos were affected and many lives were lost.
Now weeks, later some businesses including the Santiago Chile casino are still closed due to the damages that they suffered. The casino is run by Sun International Ltd. the largest hotel and casino company in chile. Montecello, the casino was prepared financially for the natural disaster in that it was covered through its insurance, however the damage that it sustained was beyond what they had ever imagined.
Now to get back what they lost, they will be paying in nearly $8 million to the insurance company just to make repairs and open again for business. The end is nowhere in sight as the earthquake actually triggered a Tsunami to roll through the area. SO far over 700 lives have been claimed in the incident and the countryside has be littered with debris. Although this was the largest quake, they keep feeling more and more tremors in that area. In the past few days two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and higher registered offshore, as well as another sparking in at 4.9. This is clearly a very volatile area these days and preparedness is a necessity before they can begin to get themselves back on a normal everyday track.
The casino will do its best now to begin their repairs as they realize more of their damage. They will now have to move in stages to get back up to speed. According to Chief Executive, David Coutts-Trotter, “There has been significant damage to the casino and retail complex including the convention centre and administration areas, some of it due to the quake and aftershocks and some due to the sprinkler system.”
