The preparation hearing for the trial involving illegal casinos in Concepción, Chile, has been postponed for a second time.
This time, defence lawyers questioned whether the case will ultimately proceed to trial.
The Concepción Guarantee Court has scheduled the hearing for 15 December after a defence-commissioned expert report caused further delays.
The hearing had initially been scheduled for June following the prosecution’s indictment in May, before being moved to October.
The case stems from a 2024 operation by Chile’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Police, which raided 13 commercial premises, seized hundreds of slot machines and arrested 19 people.
Defence lawyers have raised concerns about the chain of custody of the seized machines, arguing that evidence was formally under the Public Prosecutor’s Office but was materially handled and stored by the casino association involved in the case.
Lawyer Pablo Larredonda said the defence will raise the issue during the trial preparation hearing and did not rule out the possibility that the proceedings could ultimately be abandoned if evidence is excluded.
Another defence lawyer, Giovanni Gotelli, described the alleged irregularities in the investigation as unprecedented, arguing that the evidence may be compromised by a lack of protocols and shortcomings in its handling.
César Irribarra also argued that the alleged chain-of-custody deficiencies could put the prosecution at risk of an acquittal for all defendants.
The investigation was led by former regional prosecutor Marcela Cartagena and was divided into three separate cases involving alleged offences including criminal association, illegal casino operations and tax fraud.
Recently, Chile’s regulator declared two of its four latest casino tenders unsuccessful after receiving no bids.
Chile’s Senate Economy Committee is seeking changes to the country’s proposed online betting framework to reconcile taxation of offshore platforms with court-backed measures
