Chile’s CMF targets payment services for unlicensed online casinos

Chile’s financial regulator is moving to narrow what payment operators can do for online gambling platforms that do not have local authorization. For PSPs and acquirers, the practical message is simple: if the activity is not legitimate under Chilean law, the payment rails may be next in line.

1. Catherine Tornel, president of the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF), said the regulator’s public consultation would limit the services payment operators can provide to activities that are legitimate in Chile and properly authorized to operate in the country.
2. The consultation updates the list of complementary activities that payment card operators may carry out. The proposed text says those services can only be provided to entities whose business activities comply with Chilean law and that hold the necessary authorizations to operate there.
3. The draft goes further by saying authorization would not extend to services linked to activities conducted abroad that would be considered illegal if carried out inside Chile. In practice, that closes the familiar cross-border workaround: an offshore platform serving Chilean users without a local license.
4. Asked directly whether the rule would prevent payment operators from serving online casinos currently operating without authorization in Chile, Tornel said the proposal is aimed precisely at that kind of activity. She also noted that casino gambling is only permitted in Chile for certain companies with the relevant authorizations.
5. According to La Tercera, Tornel said that if those services are not offered by specifically authorized companies, they are not legitimate and payment operators would not be able to provide payment services to them, because they are businesses without legal recognition in Chile.

The timing matters because the Chilean Supreme Court has already declared unauthorized online betting platforms illegal in the country, while the government has enabled the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII) to collect the Digital VAT from foreign platforms that register in a specific registry. The CMF’s move adds another layer: not just the operator, but the payment flow itself is now under scrutiny.