for early access to the latest igaming videos!
and get the latest igaming news first!
The implementation of measures taken by Chile to restrict the growth of illegal online gambling sites is still pending, according to Macarena Carvallo, the president of the board of Polla Chilena de Beneficencia.
In an interview with a local news publication, ADN Hoy, Carvallo commented on the current developments in a lawsuit filed by the state-owned lottery against online casinos operating in the country. The company filed a criminal complaint against online casinos before the Fourth Guarantee Court of Santiago, alleging crimes such as criminal association, illegal operation of games of chance, and money laundering.
The lawsuit resulted in a major victory for the company on September 30, 2025, when the Corte Suprema de Chile ruled in favor of a constitutional protection appeal, ordering the blocking of access to online betting sites. However, according to Carvallo, there is still a lack of full compliance with the ruling.
“We are waiting for telecommunications companies to inform the Court of Appeals whether it is true or not that all online gambling and betting websites have been blocked, and what the mechanism for that is, because it is difficult to block them all. It is complicated to maintain a permanent block on these platforms, because they change their URLs or their domains”, she said.
Partial Compliance and Technical Obstacles
Carvallo stated that while some progress has been made, it is still not a case of full compliance. “The Justice system ordered the blocking of illegal sites. That has occurred partially by telecommunications companies. Today we are in a sort of process of determining the effective way for that ruling to be complied with and executed”, she said.
Based on her evaluation, the telecommunications firms claim that they have complied with the court order. Nevertheless, the lottery firm disagrees. “The telecommunications firms say that they have complied with the court order, and we continue to disagree with this, precisely because not all platforms have been effectively blocked”, she said.
Carvallo emphasized the magnitude of the problem by pointing out that there are still 3,500 gambling platforms that are accessible in Chile. “In Chile, approximately, there are three thousand five hundred platforms that one can access without any problem to gamble. And those that were eventually blocked were around twelve, which are the most well-known”, she explained.
Moreover, she claimed that some of the blocked platforms immediately reopened using new websites. “Those same twelve, after the blocking occurred, generated a new website and continued offering games to bettors”, she said.
Broader Regulatory Implications
For the president of Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, the problem is a clear defiance of the court order. “It is a way of bypassing this judicial ruling, which ultimately changes the principle of net neutrality. We do not understand why telecommunications companies have not complied with the ruling, and why the Subsecretariat of Telecommunications has done nothing concrete”, Carvallo said.
The conflict illustrates the technical difficulties involved in blocking websites in the modern internet era. Online gambling websites can easily change their domain names, set up mirror sites, or employ other methods of accessing the internet, making it difficult to block them.
On the other hand, the case also presents questions concerning the coordination of regulation among judicial authorities, telecommunication companies, and government regulatory agencies.
While Chile continues to discuss the legal framework that will govern online gambling, the efficacy of court-ordered blocking remains a key consideration. The resolution of this conflict could have implications for how Chile approaches digital enforcement mechanisms in the future and may inform policy discussions related to illegal online gambling operations within its borders.
Source: SBC Noticias
