Chile’s Ministry of Finance announced that the Senate plenary approved in principle the bill to regulate online betting platforms, advancing the initiative in its second constitutional stage. The proposal is framed around player protection, transparency over the source and use of funds, safeguards for the integrity of games of chance, and a shift from widespread unregulated activity to a supervised and taxable market, with steady-state fiscal revenue estimated at around CLP 84,000 million per year. The bill would require platforms to be formalised as companies registered in Chile under oversight by the current Superintendence of Gaming Casinos, which would be renamed the Superintendence of Casinos, Betting and Games of Chance, and would be supported by enhanced powers across authorities including the CMF, SII, Subtel and the UAF. It establishes a dedicated framework to pursue illegal online gambling, including controls on payment methods such as blocking transactions to unauthorised platforms, prohibiting such platforms from holding domestic accounts, requiring internet service providers to block access, and banning downloads of their apps, alongside specific criminal offences covering unauthorised operation, advertising of unauthorised platforms and certain account-opening conduct. The design also includes a National Responsible Betting Policy and advertising rules with protections for children and adolescents, sports integrity provisions including restrictions on betting by persons with influence over outcomes and an offence for manipulating a betting object, and earmarked sports funding through a 2% annual levy on gross sports-betting revenue for the National Sports Institute plus an increase to 22% of gross revenue from Polla’s Xperto sports forecasting system. The proposed tax regime would apply value added tax as a digital entertainment service and a 20% specific tax, with a 1% rate increase linked to responsible gambling spending; it also sets transitional licensing and a 12-month cooling-off period for operators that have been operating illegally, combined with a one-off substitute tax for later licensing based on 31% of gross revenue and 0.07 UTM per user account over the 36 months before entry into force. The bill now moves to detailed analysis in the joint Economy and Finance committees, with amendments due by 12:00 on 29 September.

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