Chile closes the deadline for amendments to the online gambling law with two alternatives on the table: prohibit it or leave it only in the hands of lotteries
Two senators' proposals completely replace the bill, pending the publication of the Government's amendments
On October 26, 2026, at 12:00 p.m., the Chilean Senate closed the last deadline to present amendments (indications) to the bill that regulates the development of online betting platforms (Bulletin 14.838-03). This is stated in the official processing of the bill. On October 20, the Chamber ratified the agreement of Committees that opened that period in the Secretariat of the Economy Commission. The Government's amendments presented in this last round are not yet among the documents published by the Senate.
The bill arrived at the Chamber of Deputies on March 7, 2022 as a message from the Executive. Today it is in the second constitutional procedure in the Senate, which approved it in general on August 13, 2025 with 27 votes in favor, 3 against, and 5 abstentions. Since then, the Chamber has opened several deadlines for amendments. The previous one expired on October 16, 2026.
The latest document of amendments published brings together 593 indications. Among them there are two that completely replace the text of the project and change its orientation: one makes it a ban on online betting platforms and the other reserves the activity to lotteries that are already authorized.
The first is signed by Senators Ibáñez and Saavedra. Article 1 reads: "It is prohibited to develop, exploit, manage, offer, mediate or advertise, directly or indirectly, online betting platforms that operate in Chile." A platform is considered to work in Chile if it allows betting from the national territory, "regardless of where its infrastructure is located or its domain is hosted." Games that, in accordance with their special laws, are developed by the Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, the Lotería de Concepción, authorized racetracks and authorized gambling casinos are excluded from the prohibition.
For those who violate the prohibition for profit, the proposal provides for minor imprisonment in its medium to maximum degree and fines of 200 to 1,000 monthly tax units (between 13,077 and 65,384 euros). Internet providers, application stores and payment methods entities would have to block access, download and transactions from the platforms communicated to them by the Superintendence of Gambling Casinos within five calendar days. Contracts entered into against the prohibition "will suffer from an illicit object".
A transitory article allows platforms that are registered with the Internal Revenue Service to continue operating for up to 24 months when the law is published. During that period they would not be able to advertise or admit minors, and from month 18 they would not be able to open new accounts either. At the end of the period, they would have 60 days to return the balances to users. Platforms without such registration would be immediately banned.
The second proposal is from Senator Núñez and is entitled "Bill that regulates the exploitation of online gambling and betting, reserves its operation to legally authorized entities and establishes criminal sanctions and a permanent judicial blocking procedure." Article 3 reserves online gambling to two entities. The first is the Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, for "lottery draws, number games, predictions and bets related to sports competitions" of its special legislation. The second is the University of Concepción, through the Concepción Lottery, for its lottery draws. The text specifies that the use of digital means "will not constitute an authorization to develop new modalities of gambling or expand the object of exploitation."
Article 4 of this proposal prohibits the exploitation of online betting platforms aimed at Chile to any other company, "regardless of the place of incorporation, domicile or residence of the operator, the location of its servers or the existence of authorizations granted by foreign authorities." Land-based casinos and horse racing betting would continue to be governed by their laws, but these authorizations "will not extend to modalities of digital exploitation" that are not expressly provided. For the two lotteries, the proposal modifies their laws (18,851 of the Polla and 18,568 of the Concepción Lottery) and allows them to sell by electronic or digital means.
Núñez's text also establishes crimes and fines:
It also creates a judicial procedure for permanent blocking before a minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, with provisional blocks that should be executed within 48 hours. It sets the entry into force 90 days after its publication. By then, non-authorized operators would have to cease their activity, and they would have 30 more days to return the funds to users.
Now the Economy Commission will have to study these proposals together with the Government's amendments presented in the last period, the text of which has not yet been published by the Senate.
SEE Senate of Chile. Processing of Bulletin 14.838-03 and Bulletin of indications. Internal Revenue Service, value of the UTM in 2026. Official Gazette of Chile, exchange rate of 10/16/2026.
