Chile's Senate Economy Committee agreed to create a technical working group with the Finance Ministry to resolve pending amendments to the country's online betting regulation bill, pushing back the timeline for a sector that has been operating without a legal framework for years.
The decision came after Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz, who had been invited to the session, sent word through committee President Gastón Saavedra that the government wants to coordinate proposed changes before a new amendment deadline is set.
Gastón Saavedra, President of the Senate Economy Committee, said: "The Minister of Finance proposed setting up a technical working group to resolve the changes we are proposing and those they will make. The idea is to bring together our advisors and those from the ministry, and after that set a new deadline to submit amendments."
The bill, originally introduced under former President Sebastián Piñera's administration, passed its first reading in the Senate with broad support. It is now in its second reading, where it accumulated amendments spanning 377 pages as of the May deadline.
The legislation aims to create a licensing system for online betting operators, establish a 20% specific tax on gross gaming revenue, require operators to pay VAT and corporate income tax on par with land-based casinos, and redirect 2% of gross revenues to sports bodies, including the Olympic and Paralympic committees.
Matías Walker, Senator, said: "The amendment deadline passed in May and the committee compiled a 377-page comparison document. There is also the financial report that projected annual collections of between $180 and $200m."
The committee session also addressed an unresolved tension created by Chile's Internal Revenue Service (SII). On June 2, the SII issued a resolution requiring foreign online betting platforms without a local presence to register and pay VAT under the same simplified mechanism used by other international digital service providers.
The measure was framed as a tax fairness issue, not a legalization of gambling activity. But the move drew immediate pushback from senators who argued it contradicts both existing law and a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that ordered telecoms providers to block 23 unlicensed betting sites.
Saavedra pointed to what he described as a contradiction: collecting taxes from platforms that are legally prohibited from operating raises questions about the origin of their capital, since those operators are not required to report to Chile's Financial Intelligence Unit.
Eduardo Cáceres, Acting Superintendent of Gaming Casinos, said: "The law allows operators to run games in a physical location, which is a casino. It does not cover online games; they are not authorized."
Cáceres also confirmed the regulator has been working with the Telecommunications Undersecretariat on a protocol to forward suspicious URLs for ISP-level blocking. The committee agreed to send formal requests to both the Public Prosecutor's Office and the National District Attorney to obtain updates on the status of the 123 complaints filed since 2018, after Senator Diego Ibáñez noted no convictions appeared to have resulted from those cases.
A Cadem survey cited during the committee session showed 82% of Chileans support blocking unlicensed platforms and 90% oppose minors having access to them
