Chile’s lottery agency files criminal complaint against iGaming operators including Coolbet, Betsson and Betano

Chile’s state lottery and gaming agency, Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, has taken operators to court over alleged unauthorized casino and lottery activity, money laundering, and participation in criminal groups. For PSPs and payment teams, the useful part is obvious: the complaint explicitly points to local payment adaptation, targeted advertising, and a push to trace financial flows.

1. Polla Chilena de Beneficencia says an organized group of individuals and legal entities has been “continuously” operating Chile’s lottery and casino market through digital platforms without legal authorization.
2. The complaint names Coolbet, Betsson, Betano, LatamWin, Jugabet, Estelar Bet and Juega en Línea. According to the filing, these operators adapted their sites to local payment solutions and ran advertising programs aimed at Chileans.
3. The agency is asking the court to investigate and identify the operators’ ultimate beneficial owners, obtain all available commercial, accounting and contractual documents, and lift banking secrecy in order to trace the operators’ financial flows.
4. Chile still does not have a licensing regime for operators. At the same time, the country’s largest internet providers are required to block offshore sites, while Chile’s Internal Revenue Service continues to demand VAT from operators.

For high-risk payment providers, this is the familiar squeeze: a market that has not built a clean licensing path, but where operators are still being pushed into local payment methods, tax collection, and now criminal exposure. That combination tends to make acquiring, routing, and settlement decisions more interesting than anyone would like.