Chile's Online Betting Bill Pairs Licences and a 3% Tax With a Full Advertising Ban

Chile's government wants online betting platforms to take out five-year licences, pay a 3% tax on top of 19% VAT, and stop advertising and offering bonuses. The proposal was submitted to the Senate within its deadline and reported by Yogonet on 28 October. It is a government bill, not law, and it still has to pass through Congress.

The draft sets an annual licence fee of 1,000 UTM, which Yogonet converts to roughly US$73,239. Once operating, platforms would pay 19% VAT on the difference between amounts wagered and prizes paid each month, plus “an additional tax at a rate of 3%.” The report does not say what base the 3% applies to, so its real weight on operator margins cannot be judged from this text alone.

The sharper provision concerns firms that already served Chilean players without a licence. Applications would be refused if a company or related party had operated, advertised or offered services in Chile without a licence in the previous 12 months, including through a .cl domain, paid sponsorships or agreements with Chilean payment providers. A transitional regime lifts that bar for operators that pay a 3,000 UTM authorisation fee, about US$219,718, stay current on Digital VAT and declare tax for the previous 36 months. Making that payment would, the bill says, automatically extinguish civil, criminal and administrative liability for tax non-compliance. That is a paid route back for the operators that were already in the market, and a barrier that smaller firms may find much harder to clear.

The advertising ban covers licensed and unlicensed operators alike. It reaches the party commissioning ads, the designer, the distributor, any intermediary and the person who presents them. Bonuses and promotional offers are also barred, even where no advertising runs. Existing contracts with transitional licence holders could continue for up to a year, but only outside hours set aside to protect minors.

The bill also requires safer-gambling settings to be switched on by default for every account, including deposit limits and session and daily time limits, and biometric authentication. It would bar athletes, technical staff, sports directors and shareholders from betting on their own sport, and create a fund for addiction prevention. Land-based casinos could offer online betting on their premises, but only through an operator that holds a licence.

Analysis: The structure rewards firms with the capital to regularise and makes entry costly for everyone else. A ban on advertising and bonuses would shift competition away from marketing and toward product and price, but it would also make it harder for a new licensed operator to reach players. The open question for the Senate is whether the 3% tax and the 3,000 UTM transitional fee are set to bring unlicensed operators inside, or simply to let the largest of them buy their way out of liability. Senators have also pushed for a full ban, so the bill's licensing route is not the only option on the table.