Chile adds offshore online gambling operators to its digital VAT regime

Chile’s Internal Revenue Service (SII) has issued a resolution that requires foreign sports betting, online casino and other digital gaming operators serving Chilean users without a local presence to register and pay VAT. For PSPs and operators, the important part is simple: Chile is moving offshore gambling traffic into the same tax machinery it already uses for other imported digital services.

1. Under Exempt Resolution No. 69 of June 2, 2026, offshore platforms offering sports betting, online casinos and other digital games of chance to Chilean users must register and pay Value Added Tax (VAT) on transactions with those users. The resolution folds them into Chile’s simplified tax regime for digital services provided from abroad.
2. The SII said the point is tax equity: if an activity generates income in Chile, it should contribute the corresponding taxes regardless of where the provider is domiciled. The resolution applies VAT to all payments received by these platforms and also covers the regularisation of prior tax obligations.
3. That retroactive angle matters. Companies that have already operated in the Chilean market may be required to pay taxes owed for up to 36 prior tax periods. For operators, that is not just a filing update; it is a balance-sheet question.
4. The SII also drew a line between tax compliance and licensing status. It said its job is to oversee tax obligations, not to decide whether an activity is legal or illegal, which is left to other government agencies. So paying VAT in Chile does not, by itself, settle the regulatory status of an offshore gambling site.
5. The industry split is predictable. The Chilean Association of Online Betting Platforms (aPAL) welcomed the move, saying it corrects an exclusion from the system used by other overseas digital providers and adds legal certainty. The Chilean Association of Casinos and Gaming (ACCJ), which represents local land-based operators, opposed it, arguing that tax regularisation should not be read as recognition of grey-market gambling operations.

For high-risk payment teams, Chile is now another country where “we don’t have a local entity” no longer means “we are outside the tax net.” The mechanism is already familiar from streaming, e-commerce and cloud services; the only novelty here is the vertical.