Chile bill would let existing casinos go online under their current permits as Senate panel leans toward ban

A group of Chilean deputies has proposed letting the country's licensed casinos take their existing games online, a narrower alternative to the stand-alone online licensing regime the Senate is debating, where a committee voted this week for amendments that would ban private online betting operators.

Bulletin 18781-06 was filed in the Chamber of Deputies on October 22, 2026 by deputies Sergio Bobadilla, Eduardo Cretton and Cristóbal Martínez of the UDI party, according to the bill text. It was reported to the chamber in session 81 on October 26 and assigned to the Interior Government Committee. The government has not attached urgency to it.

Online play as part of the existing casino permit

Law 19.995 currently states that a casino operating permit "in no case" covers online games of chance. The bill would replace that sentence and add Article 5 bis, under which remote play becomes an accessory to each existing permit. If a casino loses its permit on any ground in Article 30, its online authorisation ends automatically. A transitional article says the authorisation would be deemed included in permits in force when the law is published, but online operations could start only after implementing regulations are issued and the Superintendency of Casinos (SCJ) certifies the operator.

Key conditions in the text include:

• one remote gaming platform per operator, under one brand and one ".cl" domain notified in advance to the SCJ;
• direct operation by the permit holder; suppliers may build or maintain the platform but may not run the games, handle players or take betting risk, and their contracts must be reported to the SCJ before they take effect;
• one named account per player per operator, with identity and age checks, payments only through the player's own accounts at institutions supervised by the Financial Market Commission (CMF), and no cash, untraceable payment methods or credit;
• player-set deposit, loss and time limits; self-exclusion and limit reductions take effect immediately, while limit increases apply only after seven days.

Running a platform under an unreported brand or domain, letting a third party operate it, or seriously breaching identity, payment or self-exclusion rules would become a new ground for permit revocation under Article 31.

Criminal penalties and site blocking

A new Article 54 bis would punish anyone who offers online gambling to the public in Chile without a permit or other legal authorisation with presidio menor in its medium to maximum degrees (541 days to five years) and a fine of 100 to 1,000 UTM. A platform would count as offering to the public in Chile if it accepts players resident in the country, accepts Chilean-issued payment methods or advertises to the Chilean public. Advertising such platforms would carry a fine of 50 to 500 UTM. Article 54 ter would let courts order internet providers to block sites, domains and apps, extend orders to mirror sites, and order payment firms to suspend transactions. The authors note this provision may be classed as an organic constitutional rule, which would require the Supreme Court to be consulted.

Separate articles would allow Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, Lotería de Concepción and authorised racetracks to sell the lotteries, sports pools and pari-mutuel bets they are already licensed for online, subject to the same account, payment, responsible-gambling and advertising rules. The bill says this does not let them offer casino games.

The financial case in the preamble

The authors say the bill creates no new tax: online revenue would fall under the existing casino gaming tax, split equally between host municipalities and regional governments. Citing SCJ data, the preamble says casinos licensed under Law 19.995 accrued CLP 95.4 billion in taxes as of the end of June 2026, including CLP 41.7 billion in the specific gaming tax. It says industry tax revenue fell 8.87% in real terms year on year and that several regional operators face reorganisation proceedings or liquidation requests from creditors. Under Article 30(d), a permit is extinguished if the operator is placed in liquidation.

The proposal runs alongside the online betting bill filed in March 2022, which is now in its second reading in the Senate. On November 9, the Senate Economy Committee voted 3-1 with one abstention to approve amendments that would ban private online operators, as covered in AskSpinner's November 10 market update. The government's amendments to that bill had proposed a full advertising ban and an extra 3% tax; see Chile's government files online betting bill amendments. Chile's telecoms regulator Subtel has meanwhile been ordering DNS blocks of unlicensed sites under court rulings; see Chile's Subtel extends blocking to 143 online gambling sites.