Chile’s online gambling bill splits the Senate between licensing and a ban

Chile’s government wants five-year licences for private online betting operators. Senators have put in competing texts that would shut that market down instead. On October 27, the Senate Economy Committee began working through the government’s amendments. The bill has been in Congress since 2022 and is in its second legislative stage. None of the October texts is law.

Private online betting sites still do not hold a Chilean gambling licence. Registering for digital VAT does not create one. Court-backed DNS blocking is already being used against unauthorised domains.

The government proposal: licences, tax and an advertising ban

Undersecretary of Finance Sebastián Vallebona presented a 114-page package to the committee. It is signed by President José Antonio Kast and ministers Jorge Quiroz, Daniel Mas, May Chomalí, Fernando Rabat and Claudio Alvarado. The text would withdraw the amendments filed so far.

Permanent licences would last five years and carry an annual fee of 1,000 UTM. In the same report, Emol prices a fine of 10 UTM at CLP 721,510, so 1,000 UTM is about CLP 72.2 million. The proposed tax base is the monthly difference between stakes and prizes paid. The government would apply 19% VAT to that amount, plus an additional 3% tax.

Marketing would be tightly limited. Advertising for online betting platforms would be prohibited whether or not the platform held a licence, and the ban would cover anyone who commissions, designs, distributes or personally publishes the advertising. Bonuses and promotions meant to attract or retain customers would also be prohibited. Advertising contracts already signed by a platform that held a temporary licence could continue for up to a year, and only outside the hours reserved for the protection of children.

Other proposed controls include deposit and session-time limits, stronger identity checks, and exclusion of people who are self-excluded, in prison, or listed on the national register of child-support debtors. A company that had operated in Chile without a licence during the previous 12 months could be refused a permanent licence. A temporary route would require, among other conditions, an enabling payment of 3,000 UTM and compliance with digital VAT.

The operators’ group aPAL told Emol that it supports regulation aimed at harm prevention, and that it opposes the total advertising ban and the bonus ban. Its argument is that licensed sites would then struggle to draw players away from unlicensed ones.

Senators are offering prohibition instead

Senators Gastón Saavedra and Diego Ibáñez have proposed a different model. BioBioChile reported on October 17 that their text would leave Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, Lotería de Concepción, racetracks and land-based casinos under their existing special laws, and would criminalise both unauthorised online betting platforms and advertising for them. Bettors would be exempt. Blocking would be administrative. Platforms already registered with the tax authority could keep operating for up to 24 months. The Economy Committee has not adopted that text, so the 24-month period is not a right anyone can rely on.

Senate President Paulina Núñez filed a separate and harder proposal. It does not license private operators, and it does not leave digital gambling with every business that already has some gambling authorisation. BioBioChile reported on October 20 that her text would keep digital operation of authorised games with Polla Chilena de Beneficencia and Lotería de Concepción only. It would add permanent judicial blocking, fines of up to 10,000 UTM, and prison sentences of up to 15 years in aggravated cases, including deliberately targeting minors or continuing after a court order.

Blocking is already happening

Chile is not waiting for the bill to finish. On September 1, telecom regulator Subtel ordered internet providers to block 42 online-betting URLs by DNS within 48 hours. The Superintendence of Casinos had validated the list, and Subtel said the order complied with rulings of the Supreme Court and the Santiago Court of Appeals. On September 21, Subtel ordered another 37 domains blocked, including mirror sites.

That enforcement is separate from tax registration. On June 3, the tax authority said Resolution 69 of June 2 lets foreign online betting platforms register and pay digital VAT. The resolution says it deals only with tax compliance. Licensing, supervision and whether the activity is lawful belong to other agencies.

For players, the practical point is unchanged. None of the October proposals is law. A tax registration is not a Chilean gambling licence. And access to a particular domain can be cut off while the Senate is still deciding whether private operators should ever be licensed.