Substantial progress has been made in the legislation of online gambling regulation in Chile. Recently, the Finance Committee of the Chilean Senate unanimously approved a bill draft aimed at regulating online gambling platforms, paving the way for comprehensive legislation. The bill is now submitted to the full Senate meeting for review and will later enter the Economic and Finance Committee for detailed article analysis.
The bill is in the second constitutional stage of the legislative process, aiming to establish the country's first official online gambling regulatory framework, ensuring institutional management of the industry in terms of fair competition, tax compliance, and user protection.
According to Deputy Minister of Finance Heidi Berner, in the future, both local and international operators providing online gambling services will uniformly pay a 19% value-added tax, with no exemptions. She estimates that the overall tax burden will be controlled below 28% under this tax regime and other related obligations.
In addition to tax provisions, the draft also includes a series of clauses aimed at protecting consumers, combating illegal gambling, and preventing minors from participating. Platform operators will face stricter technical and legal responsibilities, ensuring mechanisms such as user identity verification, transaction transparency, and moderate gambling are implemented.
Berner further pointed out that the bill will provide a legal basis for establishing a licensing system, and once officially implemented, it will be possible to prosecute unlicensed operators, effectively combating the gray market.
In the process of drafting the bill, the government extensively consulted various parties to ensure that the regulations balance industry development and social responsibility. Stakeholders involved in the consultation include international gambling companies such as Betsson, Betano, Coolbet, EstelarBet, as well as national lottery agencies, casino industry associations, digital platform representatives, horse racing organizations, and child rights protection groups.
In the past few months, the Senate Finance Committee held multiple rounds of hearings, extensively collecting opinions from the industry and the public, further enriching the legislative content.
If finally passed, the regulation will bring online gambling into Chile's official regulatory system, aligning it with existing licensed gambling modes such as physical casinos, national lotteries, and horse racing.
Legislators have stated that the next phase will focus on regulatory details and technical execution standards in the Economic and Finance Committee deliberations. The progress of this bill is seen as an important milestone in the modernization of Chile's gambling policy, attracting high attention from all sectors.
