Chilean Constitutional Law Makes for Nice Internet Gambling Environment

When the Constitution of Chile was rewritten in 1980, a provision was written with regard to legalized gambling in the country: Section 63 of the document states that only the Chilean government is authorized to regulate gambling games. Though in 2005, Chile’s authorities passed the “Law establishing the general basis for the authorization, operation and auditing of game casinos,” the law regarding Internet gambling in Chile remains vague.  

Technically, any game offering cash or prizes is strictly forbidden without regulation. Since as previously stated, only the central government can regulate such games, basically all sorts of non-approved gaming are illegal – This is what necessitated the passage of the 2005 law. 

Oddly enough, no law exists with regard to Internet gambling in Chile and even stranger under Chile’s strong constitution is the fact that, by the letter of the law, owning and operating gaming services – including online casinos in Chile – is *not* illegal. In order not to rouse authorities, foreign-based Internet gambling websites are not directly marketed to Chilean citizens, as this is clearly a violation of national law.  

In fact, Chilean authorities have publicly stated their resignation to some foreign-provided online gaming persisting and that law enforcement is basically impossible if the online casino is legally registered in another country and/or if the casino server is not physically located in Chile.  

While Chile’s state-owned Internet gambling provider Polla Chileana de Beneficencia has filed complaints in Chilean court about outside casino and poker providers, not a single citizen has been arrested nor have any charges been pursued in international court. 

For now it seems that the Chilean government is satisfied to stand on constitutional law while strengthening the market share of Chile-based monopoly companies. Surely foreign-owned online casinos are happy with this arrangement, and punters in Chile have got to be thrilled with their freedom in Internet gaming.