In a country that doesn’t have a proper law regulating online gambling, the Supreme Court of Chile ordered blocking access to 23 sports betting websites. The decision will likely go against the financial interests of the Chilean football professional league.
Chile Supreme Court on September 12 ordered the telecommunication company Mundo Pacífico to block access to 23 online sports betting sites in the country.
The Court ruled in favor of Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, a state-owned company allowed to operate games of chance, which issued a protection appeal in 2022 against Mundo Pacífico where it requested to block and stop promoting online betting sites.
“Online sports betting […] is prohibited in our legal system,” according to the court ruling. But online betting is actually not clearly regulated by law in Chile.
Chile’s highest jurisdiction based its decision on current laws about brick-and-mortar casinos and ruled that websites that don’t have a license to operate games of chance are illegal.
The decision is in line with the position of the Superintendency of Gaming Casinos, which oversees the operation of the country’s casinos, and which states the only online betting services authorized to operate in Chile are those provided by Lotería de Concepción, Polla Chilena de Beneficencia and Teletrak, the companies organizing lotteries and horse betting.
In June, the undersecretary of the Treasury, Heidi Berner, presented a bill to regulate online betting platforms. “It seemed important to us to work on indications to improve the design of the regulation of this activity, in order to effectively restrict the operation of illegal gambling platforms that can be accessed from Chile, which operate without paying taxes and without a policy of responsible gambling and protection of children and adolescents, among other negative externalities,” stressed the undersecretary.
However, the bill wouldn’t plan on banning online sports betting but to regulate it through operating licenses, among other requirements.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Justice gave the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP), the Chilean football (soccer) federation, 30 days to terminate contracts with sports betting websites.
In 2023, Chile’s two highest leagues were renamed to include Betsson, since this online gambling company became the main sponsor of the professional leagues for about 2.5 million dollars. But the government request also affects the dozens of Chilean professional clubs sponsored by foreign betting companies.
But on Friday, the ANFP decided to challenge the government with an appeal for protection, considering authorities “lack legal powers” to instruct the contract termination. However, the Supreme Court’s recent decision seems against the ANFP’s position.
In 2022, the Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of a bill prohibiting betting house advertising in all Chilean football activities, but the law is still being processed.
