Chile’s Physical Casinos Back Online Betting Regulation as Revenues Slide

Chile’s land-based casino industry is pushing lawmakers to finally regulate online betting, and the numbers behind that push tell a stark story. According to the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego’s (SCJ) latest statistical bulletin, the country’s 25 licensed casinos generated UF 4,563,333 (roughly US$197 million) in revenue over the first four months of 2026 — a 20 percent drop from the UF 5,764,473 (about US$248 million) recorded over the same stretch in 2019, when only 24 casinos were operating.

Visitor traffic has fallen even harder. The SCJ reported 1.9 million visits so far this year, down 29 percent from the 2.7 million visits logged across 23 casinos in early 2019. One bright spot in the data: average spend per visit is up roughly 8 percent over the same comparison period, suggesting the casinos still drawing customers are getting more value out of each one even as overall foot traffic thins out.

Operators Frame Land-Based Decline and Online Gray Market as One Problem

Industry leaders are now treating the sector’s shrinking revenue and Chile’s unresolved online betting question as two sides of the same issue rather than separate concerns. Cecilia Valdes, president of the Asociacion de Casinos en Chile, has pointed to both offshore online betting platforms and illegal physical gambling operations as siphoning off customers without facing the same regulatory obligations that licensed, land-based casinos must meet.

Valdes isn’t calling for online betting to be blocked or restricted further — she’s pushing for the opposite: effective regulation of online betting paired with modernization of the rules governing existing licensed casinos, so both sides of the industry compete under comparable terms. She’s also flagged the knock-on fiscal effect: falling visitor counts reduce entry-tax collection, and lower gross gaming revenue shrinks the specific tax that funds host municipalities and regional governments.

That fiscal argument matters in Chile’s system. Casinos pay a 20 percent tax on gross gaming revenue, split monthly between the municipality hosting each casino and its regional government — a revenue stream several smaller host towns rely on disproportionately relative to their size.

Where Chile’s Online Betting Bill Actually Stands

Chile has been trying to pass online betting legislation since March 2022, when Bill 14838-03 was first introduced under the Pinera administration. It survived the change to the Boric government and has since been picked up again under President Jose Antonio Kast, who granted it “highest legislative urgency” status in May 2026 — a designation meant to force a Senate vote within 15 days. That deadline came and went without a final vote, and as of this summer the bill remains stuck in joint Senate committee review, with the main sticking point being how a renamed, expanded regulator would divide authority with Chile’s tax agency.

As drafted, the bill would rename the SCJ the Superintendencia de Casinos, Apuestas y Juegos de Azar and give it real-time oversight of licensed online operators’ betting and financial data. Operators would need to incorporate locally, disclose beneficial ownership, and pay a 20 percent tax on gross gaming revenue on top of standard VAT, plus a 1 percent responsible-gambling levy and a 2 percent sports-development contribution. Chile’s Supreme Court has twice ordered internet providers to block offshore betting sites in the meantime, and the country’s tax authority has separately begun registering foreign operators to collect VAT on their Chilean business — without granting them any actual license to operate.

The convergence of falling land-based revenue, a stalled bill, and a leadership transition at the SCJ has pushed casino operators to treat prompt online regulation as a direct commercial priority rather than someone else’s problem. Their argument is straightforward: if licensed casinos could also hold online betting licenses themselves, the same operators absorbing the land-based downturn could recover some of that lost ground in a regulated digital market — provided lawmakers actually get the bill across the finish line.

Bettors in regulated U.S. markets already have access to a wide range of licensed sportsbook apps, a contrast to the legal gray zone Chilean players currently navigate while the country’s legislature works through the details.