Chilean industry pushes for online gambling rules as illegal activity reaches 1.5% of GDP

Chile’s casino sector is again asking for a specific legal framework for online betting, arguing that the illegal market has grown into a parallel industry with financial and operational scale. For PSPs and merchants in the vertical, the key point is simple: without licensing, tax, and AML controls, the business keeps moving outside the regulated stack.

1. The CPC’s report “Por un Chile sin Economía Ilícita” says illegal activities in Chile are worth about 1.5% of national GDP, and that they feed on regulatory gaps, weak enforcement systems, and insufficient sanctions. In other words, this is not being described as a fringe problem; it is being treated as a sizable illicit economy.
2. Among the sectors analyzed, illegal casinos and online betting were singled out as markets with major economic capacity. The report says the money involved shows online gambling has moved beyond a marginal phenomenon and now operates as a parallel industry with technology infrastructure, user acquisition capacity, and enough reach to compete with licensed operators.
3. The activity is happening outside state supervision, without the same controls required of regulated operators in player protection, taxation, and anti-money laundering. For payments teams, that is the important operational line: no local license, no equivalent oversight, no equivalent compliance standard.
4. The Asociación Chilena de Casinos de Juego (ACCJ) has renewed its call for a specific legal framework for digital betting in Chile. ACCJ executive president Cecilia Valdés said regulating online gambling “is not an option, but an urgent necessity,” citing operators that are currently working without a local license.
5. Valdés pointed to Operations Tokio and Muralla Oriental II as recent examples that exposed links between illicit activity, money laundering, financial platforms, cryptocurrencies, and clandestine betting networks. She also said the lack of specific regulation does not stop illegal betting; it lets a parallel economy consolidate, evade taxes, and undercut formal operators.

The debate intensified after a resolution by the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII), which allows foreign betting platforms to register and pay IVA in Chile. The ACCJ has questioned that step, arguing that tax compliance alone does not automatically turn a platform into a regulated operator.