Tomás Yelmini
As in the United States, sports betting is growing by leaps at the time around the world, and Latin America is no exception. While many countries are beginning to regulate the activity, the question that arises is whether online sports betting is legal in Chile, and to find out about it we decided to put together a report with the latest news on the matter.
Although a law regulating casinos was passed in 2005, there is currently no law regulation for online sports betting. However, Chile’s residents can bet online at foreign sportbooks. It sounds intricate, but we’ll explain it below.
Online Sports Betting in Chile in 2023. Is it Legal?
No, but in reality there is: on the one hand, there is no law regulating online sports betting within Chilean territory. However, the chileneans can bet in international sportbooks, that is to say, appeal to the Internet and play in any of those located anywhere else in the world other than Chile. According to the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego de Chile itself, there are about 900 gambling sites to which online gambling can be accessed from there.
This situation is well known, so in July 2021, the Chilean Ministry of Finance presented a draft Bill on Sports Betting and Online Gambling to regularize the local situation.
This would provide a regulatory framework for a transparent market that protects the gamblers, prevents access to vulnerable sectors, guarantees control over the origin of the funds of gambling sites and, of course, allows for an increase in tax revenues through taxes on the activity.
The latest news there is about this bill is that on March 7, 2022. Back then, the bill entered the Official Gazette (No. 14838-03) and since then it has been waiting to be enacted. At that time, the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego would be renamed Superintendencia de Casinos, Apuestas y Juego, and according to this entity, about US$ 50 million per year could be collected in taxes.
Chile’s betting market 2023
It is important to distinguish between the aforementioned bill and the Ley de Casinos No. 19,995 of 2005, which regulates all physical casinos in the country and grants licenses to operate for 15 years and with the possibility of renewal. It was for this reason that the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego was created in Chile.
Among the 18 authorized casinos, there are betting modalities that are quite similar to sports betting. These are La Polla Chilena, controlled by the local government, and the horse races. Carrera de Caballos. However, it is not possible to bet online on these activities.
Now you know if online sports betting is legal in Chile. What is left is to wait for the enactment of the law that gives a regulatory framework to an activity that, in practice, has been underway for some time now.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this report, it is possible to bet online from Chile, so at JefeBet we recommend that you always check our lists of safe sportbooks so that you can bet with confidence and peace of mind. We will be adding more and more sportbooks to our repertoire.
In the meantime, the wheel is turning and the news will keep coming in terms of sports betting, so we invite you to follow us on social networks and visit our News section.
