No Licence, but Pay Tax First? Chile’s Online Gambling Bill Gets Stuck on a Tax Resolution

File photo: Chile's National Congress in Valparaíso, 3 September 2023. Used as context for the legislative debate on online gambling; it does not show the events reported here. Photo: Carlos Figueroa Rojas / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source photograph reproduced without alteration; the website displays a cropped thumbnail. Original photo and credit. License.

Chilean newspaper La Segunda reports on online gambling regulation. Image source: La Segunda

Chile has not yet issued a single online gambling licence, but its tax authority may begin collecting taxes from the platforms first. This mismatch has added another knot to an online gambling bill already delayed for years.

According to reports, Chile’s Internal Revenue Service (SII) issued a resolution allowing offshore online gambling platforms to register, declare and pay value-added tax (IVA) in Chile. This article could not verify the resolution’s number or effective date, nor obtain the original text.

The right-wing UDI party reacted quickly. According to Chilean media reports on October 16, UDI announced that it would submit an amendment (indicación) to the Senate to stop SII from taxing online gambling companies. The widely held interpretation is that collecting tax first would give offshore platforms a form of “de facto legality” before a licensing system is introduced. However, this is only an inference about UDI’s motives; this article has not seen the original amendment.

The government, meanwhile, was a step behind. ADN radio reported on October 17 that the government had failed to submit its own amendments on time. Over the following days, several industry media outlets reported that the Senate had extended the deadline for submitting amendments. The previous deadline was October 26; the new date after the extension has not been verified.

Think tank Libertad y Desarrollo’s comment on October 20 amounted to a single sentence: the SII and online gambling issue has made the debate even more confused.

The 431-Billion-Peso Question

On the same day, Chilean newspaper La Segunda offered an estimate: unauthorised online gambling generated approximately 431 billion pesos in revenue in Chile in 2025. The basis of this figure has not been verified. The article cited Pablo Novoa’s view that Chile has no local estimates of the costs of negative impacts such as gambling addiction, and that legislation should not be rushed.

At present, only land-based casinos in Chile fall under the Casino Superintendency (SCJ). SCJ has consistently advocated blocking unauthorised websites, and industry media reported that its stance had become even tougher in mid-October.

The situation has therefore become somewhat absurd: the regulator wants to block websites, the tax authority wants to collect taxes, and Congress has not yet decided whether those websites are legal at all. For offshore platforms, the most realistic prospect may be to pay value-added tax first, then keep waiting for a set of licensing rules that has been a long time coming.

Sources

• UDI amendment: https://x.com/robinsonquelin/status/2111237796102836330
• Government’s failure to submit amendments: https://x.com/adnradiochile/status/2111288589375971587
• Account of the SII resolution: https://x.com/AvilesClaudio/status/2111621436808777817
• Deadline extension: https://x.com/soloazarok/status/2112185023252320384
• La Segunda: https://x.com/La_Segunda/status/2112589667254084029
• Note: The 431-billion-peso figure is an estimate cited by the media; its basis has not been verified.