Online gambling in Chile: the next to be regulated in Latin America?
On January 29, the Ministry of Finance announced two draft laws to modernize the casino gaming sector. The executive plans to present in the first semester of 2021 a bill to regulate online gambling in Chile.
COVID-19 has hit the casino gaming sector hard, which contributes about 130,000 million dollars to the state coffers. The government now wants to regulate online gaming and betting to modernize the industry in Chile. @Simon/Pixabay
In our summary of the 2020 sector we predicted that 2021 would be marked by the regulation of the industry on a global scale . Its regulation would allow governments to collect taxes for depleted coffers due to the current socio-economic situation, as well as having the power to establish the lines of work to prevent and combat addictive patterns among players. Entain, one of the largest business groups in the gaming industry, announced its commitment to limit its presence only in regulated markets by 2023.
Adapting to the new times
The COVID-19 crisis has forced states, companies and individuals to accept that digital reality no longer has a way back. In the press release of the Chilean Ministry of Finance , the executive pointed out the need for modernizing the casino gaming industry to adapt to the socio-economic challenges facing the country in general and the sector in particular.
To this end, the executive has arranged the drafting of two bills that allow its modernization and that revolve around three main axes :
- Introduce the necessary measures in the legal casinos to adapt them to the necessary technical requirements and promoting responsible gambling .
- Extension of construction deadlines and operation of gambling casinos with permits granted in 2018 in order to allow extensions of 6 months.
- To promote a bill to regulate online gambling , including online sportsbooks, in order, among others, to increase tax collection.
Due to the current situation, Chilean physical casinos were forced to close their doors from March 18 to November 19 , a situation that we saw repeated in physical casinos from all over the world throughout 2020 and so far in 2021.
According to the data published by the Superintendence of Gaming Casinos, face-to-face legal casinos contributed 30,000 million dollars in 2020 to the state coffers. 92.4% of this amount collected corresponds to the first half of the year .
After reopening in November 2020, casinos reached 42% of the activity registered in December 2019. Like other countries in the Latin American market, such as in Colombia, the tax collection goes to the health system, regional governments and communes received $13.365 million of the 30,000 collected by legal gambling casinos.
The total taxes collected amounted to 126.338 million dollars in 2018 . Taking into account that the State coffers collected an average of 10,000 million dollars a month in taxes coming from regulated casinos in Chile in a panorama prior to the COVID-19 crisis, it is not a surprise that the executive has seriously rethought finally regulating online games and betting in Chile.
The Latin American market, in full expansion
It is one of the most interesting markets on the scene for all the business opportunities it presents . Colombia was one of the first to regulate online gambling within its borders and allocate part of the proceeds to the health system. In the midst of the pandemic, in April 2020 Coljuegos, the Colombian national regulator, authorized live games to help legal online casinos to make their catalog more varied and competitive against illegal sites.
Its neighboring country also continues with its particular regulation of online gambling. Recently they announced the new licenses granted in Buenos Aires to operators of the stature of William Hill, Betsson or Playtech after a stagnation that had been dragging on since 2019 .
In Brazil, the possible benefits that face-to-face and online gambling of more than 4,000 million dollars a year would bring are making many rethink the illegality of this sector. The debate on the regulation of gambling and sports betting in Brazil it continues to be open with, according to polls, more than half of Brazilian deputies and 66% of citizens in favor of its legalization .
Mexico has an interesting legislative model. Online casinos can choose to operate with a national license issued by the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) or with an international one with the seal of the Malta Gaming Authority, for example. Mexico is a very lucrative market for the sector. Various studies show that the Hot Mexican operator is the fourth bookmaker with the highest traffic worldwide .
Google, the technological giant that if it knows something it is data, announced a new batch of countries in which the download of online gambling apps for real money on Google Play . This list includes countries such as Colombia and Mexico . Why will it be?
