Chile’s Supreme Court orders telecoms to block online betting sites
This comes three years after declaring online betting platforms illegal.
For years, Chile’s government has made it clear that online betting platforms were operating outside the law, but enforcement was inconsistent. While rulings in 2022 and 2023 declared sites like Betsson, Coolbet, and Latamwin illegal, the platforms remained accessible and even grew popular with Chilean users.
However, after three years, that uneasy coexistence is now over.
Kelechi Edeh
This week, Chile’s Supreme Court ordered telecom operators, including Claro, Entel, Movistar, WOM, GTD, and VTR, to immediately block access to illegal online gambling sites across the country. The ruling came after an appeal from Lotería de Concepción, one of Chile’s oldest state-sanctioned lotteries, which argued that failure to block foreign betting platforms undermined its exclusive concession rights. The Court sided with the lottery in a tight three-to-two vote, effectively shutting the door on digital betting sites such as Betano, Coolbet, Jugabet, Rojabet, and Betsson.
The Court’s message was blunt: online gambling in Chile is illegal unless explicitly authorised by law. At the moment, only licensed casinos like the Concepción Lottery, Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, Teletrak for horse racing, and authorised physical casinos are legally permitted to offer gambling services. All other platforms remain prohibited under Chilean law, regardless of how widespread or popular they have become. With internet providers now legally bound to enforce blocks, the ruling shifts the landscape from theory to practice.
For players, this means a sudden cutoff from platforms that had become part of everyday betting culture. Yield Sec, a market intelligence provider, estimates there are more than 3,800 operators offering services in Chile, generating a market worth around $3.1 billion in 2024. The market has long been dominated by brands like Betano, a European sports betting giant; Coolbet, a widely used platform across Latin America; and Jugabet, a regional operator popular with local bettors.
By contrast, Chile’s Superintendency of Casinos, the government agency responsible for overseeing licensed gaming, values illegal betting activity at just $150 million. It’s a starkly different figure that highlights how much the industry’s size depends on who is doing the counting. What is clear, however, is that the ruling signals the end of an era where such operators could function in a legal grey zone.
The ripple effects could stretch further. Telecom companies, now legally responsible for blocking sites, must invest in systems to enforce the order, potentially setting a precedent for how Chile handles other online industries flagged as illegal or harmful. And for policymakers, the case may add urgency to a bill already in the Senate that would regulate online gambling, creating a formal market with oversight, taxation, and player protections.
So while the ruling is a crackdown on gambling, it’s also a test of Chile’s broader digital enforcement. If the country can pull this off, it could reshape not just online betting but the way Chile regulates its digital economy.
Louis Eriakha
