Chile court orders telecoms to block unlicensed gambling sites

Santiago’s Court of Appeals has upheld a DNS-blocking mechanism for illegal gambling websites, adding a practical enforcement tool to a market that still has no licensing system. For PSPs and operators watching Chile, the message is simple: if you are not on the short list of authorised local operators, distribution risk just got a lot more real.

1. In September 2025, Chile’s Supreme Court confirmed that iGaming is illegal in the country. That matters because the appeals court is now backing a blocking mechanism rather than leaving the issue as a theoretical prohibition.
2. Only Lotería de Concepción, Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, horse racing tracks, and authorised casinos may offer gambling-related games in Chile. In other words, the legal perimeter is narrow, and the court has just made it easier to enforce.
3. The country’s largest internet providers — Claro, Entel, GTD, Telefónica (Movistar), WOM and VTR — are now required to block access to gambling sites flagged by Lotería de Concepción and Polla Chilena de Beneficencia. For payment firms, that usually means a tighter operational environment for any traffic tied to Chile.
4. Chile still has no licensing regime for online gambling, and the turnover of 900 illegal sites targeting Chileans is estimated at $150 million a year. That gives PSPs a useful read on scale: enough volume to matter, but with enforcement now moving from court language into network-level restrictions.