Chile: A project to regulate online gambling and betting makes progress

The Ministry of Finance announced earlier this year that it would enter a bill during the first half of the year that will seek to regulate online gambling platforms, or "online gambling." That commitment, they affirm in the Executive, will be fulfilled in the coming weeks, because the regulation is in its final stage of development.

The Undersecretary of Finance indicated that what is being sought through this project is "to regulate a competitive and transparent online betting market, protecting the health and safety of the players who participate in it."

They added that within the axes of the initiative to enter Congress it is also considered "to avoid the participation of minors, increase tax collection and make transparent the origins and destination of the resources obtained through these platforms."

In Chilethe legislation only allows gambling in authorized casinos, in the Polla and Lotería, and the racetracks. However, according to a study by the Key to Casino site, some 680 pages in Chile offer the online betting system for various lottery, betting and casino games, which represents a wide unregulated offer that operates outside the law and that for the Undersecretariat of Finance and the Superintendence of Gambling Casinos it is necessary to regulate not only fraud and scams that occur daily on the web, but also to make progress in paying the respective taxes.

Congress awaiting
At the parliamentary level there is transversal support to legislate on the subject. Senator Carlos Bianchi (independent) indicates that he commissioned a study to find out the regulations that exist at the international level and that "without a doubt we must move forward and quickly. The reason why it has not been regulated is simply because there is pressure I suppose to do so. I hope that the government soon bring the project committed in this matter as well as in greater regulations ".

For Senator Rodrigo Galilea (RN), this is an issue "that has been discussed at length in the Senate Government Committee and it must be done soon, there is enough will in the Senate to advance this regulation."

Senator PS Rabindranath Quinteros affirms that the bill that sanctions slot machines "maintains an odious discrimination, because nothing is said about the sanction of online games. Likewise, in the televising of soccer games we always appreciate advertising that calls to mark a number to enter a prize money drawing ". The parliamentarian believes that the regulation of gaming machines and online games could be a new source of resources for the State, which is estimated to reach more than US $ 200 million.

He warns that "in the meantime, the illegal online gambling business grows exponentially, even more so with the operation ban that has affected gambling casinos due to the pandemic. There is advertising for these virtual casinos in various media outlets. communication. There are even open television programs dedicated solely and exclusively to developing games of chance! "

Senator Luz Ebensperger (UDI) acknowledges that "it is not an easy subject to regulate, because many of these online games are international. The superintendent of Casinos receives many complaints from people who have played online, who claim they have won prizes and that She has never received them, but she points out that she has no attribution for these games. "

He points out that today online gambling in Chile "is very massive, and if it is not regulated there is no way to have something that restricts them or protects people from themselves and who are gamblers; and we want it to be done in a good way and do not reach minors ".