Chile Senate extends deadline for amendments to online betting bill to October 26

Chile’s Senate Economic Commission has moved the amendment deadline for the online betting bill to noon on October 26, after a request from the government. The extra time matters for PSPs and operators because the draft is still being shaped, and the current proposals point to very different rules on licensing, advertising, blocking, and player liability.

1. The original deadline was October 16, but the committee pushed it back while technical working groups continue to build a unified proposal. According to Claudio Alvarado, Minister of the Interior and Government General Secretary, the extension is meant to give those groups more time to keep working.
2. The bill is now in its second stage of review, and senators have already put forward several competing approaches. Gastón Saavedra of the Socialist Party and Diego Ibáñez of the Broad Front want Polla, Lotería, race tracks, and land-based casinos to remain under special laws, while unlicensed online casinos and their advertising would face the same criminal penalties. Under their proposal, players would not be held liable, sites could be blocked without a court order, and operators already registered with the tax authority SII would get 24 months to keep operating.
3. Paulina Núñez proposes a narrower legal market: only Polla and Lotería would remain inside the legal framework. In her version, advertising would be treated as a separate offense with harsher penalties when it is tied to sports, players themselves would be penalized, sites would be blocked through the courts, and illegal platforms would be shut down 90 days after the law enters into force.
4. Matiás Walker’s proposal focuses on operational controls: facial recognition to keep minors out, an obligation for operators to know the ultimate beneficiary of funds, and retraining land-based casino staff for online operations. That is the kind of detail that tends to matter once lawmakers move from slogans to implementation.
5. Saavedra, who chairs the committee, criticized the government’s earlier amendments as too soft and not protective enough against gambling addiction. He said that if there is no appetite to regulate the market, it would be better to ban it outright. The extension also gives deputies more time to file amendments after some documents reached the committee one minute late.