Chile's Betting Bill Draws Two Amendments to Ban Private Operators as the Government Misses Its Deadline

The Senate president and the chair of the committee handling Chile's online betting bill have each filed a replacement text that would outlaw private platforms rather than license them. The government filed nothing by the 16 October deadline and now has until 26 October; nothing has been voted.

• Chile's Senate party committees have extended the deadline for amendments to online betting bill Boletín 14.838-03 to midday on 26 October, after the executive filed none before the previous deadline on 16 October
• The Senate's amendments bulletin dated 16 October opens with two whole-text substitutes: senators Diego Ibáñez and Gastón Saavedra would ban online betting platforms except games run by the two lotteries, racecourses and casinos under existing law, and Senate president Paulina Núñez would reserve online gambling to Polla Chilena de Beneficencia and Lotería de Concepción
• Núñez's text carries prison terms of up to 15 years in aggravated cases, fines of up to 10,000 UTM (approximately $735,000), a judicial procedure for permanent blocking and fines for players who knowingly bet on illegal sites
• The bill, approved in general in August 2025 to create a licensed market, is still in its second constitutional stage, while Subtel's blocking orders face court challenges from operators
• The turn mirrors Brazil, where Congress is weighing 99 amendments to a betting ban, several of which would restore licences

Two Senate Heavyweights File Bans Into a Bill Written to License

The Senate's record for Boletín 14.838-03 shows a new amendments bulletin dated 16 October 2026, the filing deadline. It lists 593 numbered amendments, against 576 in May, and no new amendment from the President of the Republic. That evening the Senate's party committees reopened filing until 12:00 on Monday 26 October, according to La Tercera. Interior Minister and government spokesman Claudio Alvarado said "additional time" was needed to reach consensus, BioBioChile reported.

The first item is a substitute text from Diego Ibáñez of the Frente Amplio and Gastón Saavedra of the Socialist Party, who chairs the Economy Committee now drafting the bill's second report. It bans operating, offering or advertising any online betting platform taking bets from Chile, except games run under existing law by Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, Lotería de Concepción, licensed racecourses and casinos. Breaches would carry 541 days to five years in prison and fines of 200 to 1,000 UTM, approximately $14,700 to $73,500. Internet providers, app stores and payment processors would have five days to block platforms notified by the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ). Platforms registered with the tax authority, the SII, could operate for up to 24 months, without advertising.

The second is a full replacement from Senate president Paulina Núñez of Renovación Nacional. It reserves online gambling to Polla Chilena de Beneficencia and Lotería de Concepción, and states that casino and racing licences do not extend to digital channels. Running an unauthorised platform would carry five to 10 years in prison and fines of 1,000 to 5,000 UTM; admitting minors, or evading a block through new domains, up to 15 years and 10,000 UTM. A judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals would order permanent blocks, to be executed within 48 hours and extendable to mirror sites. Adults who knowingly bet on an illegal platform three or more times in 90 days would face fines of 2 to 20 UTM. Unauthorised operators would have to close 90 days after publication.

"Online betting houses are not an innocent business," Núñez said in a statement reported by G5noticias (translations from the Spanish are ours), adding that "the State cannot become a tax partner of a problem it has a duty to prevent". Saavedra described the government's earlier amendments as "extremely lax" and "permissive", and said: "If there is no will to regulate, it is better to prohibit."

A Government Still Writing Its Own Text

The bill entered Congress in March 2022 and was approved in general by the Senate on 13 August 2025, by 27 votes to three with five abstentions, as a framework for licensing, taxation and player protection. After the Economy Committee it goes to the Finance Committee before a floor vote; the Senate's record lists no current urgency. La Tercera, citing sources at La Moneda, reported that the executive missed the deadline over a dispute between the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres) and the four sponsoring ministries, Finance, Economy, Justice and Health; Segpres denied it. We found no statement from the Finance Ministry or the SCJ on the amendments.

Meanwhile, enforcement runs through the courts. Following the Supreme Court's 2025 ruling for Lotería de Concepción, Subtel ordered providers in September to block 42 domains and then 37 more. W&C N.V., which runs Latamwin and WinChile, and Epicbet's operator have sued, arguing that the SCJ and Subtel exceeded the court orders, G3 Newswire reported; neither has obtained interim relief.

The Ban Texts Are Leverage as Much as Policy

Saavedra's own words make his ban conditional. On 8 September he joined senators Matías Walker and Ricardo Celis in asking, according to the Senate's report, for licences limited to locally incorporated operators, a specific tax and disclosure of beneficial owners. A chair who was asking for a licensing law five weeks earlier has filed a ban as the alternative. Núñez's text matters for a different reason: her party holds Segpres, the ministry at the centre of the delay. With the executive yet to file, both substitutes mark the outer edge of the negotiation.

Prohibition Would Make Permanent a Regime That Is Already Leaking

Chile is already testing what a ban looks like. The SCJ, a land-based inspectorate that was still recruiting a permanent head in September, validates domain lists, Subtel forwards them and mirror sites reappear, while the financial regulator is moving on card payments. Both texts would harden that machinery rather than replace it, and both would end a fiscal arrangement already in place: the SII told senators in September that 39 platforms were registered with it, with about $100 million expected in October. Saavedra's 24-month window would let the state keep collecting from operators it has decided to expel; Núñez's 90 days would end that almost at once. Brazil, whose decree banning fixed-odds betting drew 99 amendments, several seeking to restore the licences, shows how contested that path becomes.

Chile's legislators have spent four years designing a licensed market and are now openly drafting the alternative. The government's text, due on 26 October, will show which of the two the Senate is actually negotiating.