Five Betting Operators Form New Association to Push iGaming Regulation in Chile

Five online betting operators in Chile have banded together to form the Responsible iGaming Association (AGR), a new industry group pushing lawmakers to finally regulate the country’s online gambling and sports betting market. Betano, Betsala, Estelarbet, Juegalo, and Novibet announced the coalition this week, framing it as a partnership with the Chilean government focused on consumer protection and keeping minors off betting platforms.

The move comes as Chile’s Congress continues to sit on Bill No. 14,838-03, legislation first introduced back in 2022 that would establish the country’s first formal licensing and taxation framework for online betting. Despite clearing the Chamber of Deputies and winning Senate approval “in general” by a 27-3-5 vote, the bill has stalled in joint committee review even after receiving the government’s highest legislative urgency designation earlier this year.

Why Operators Are Pushing Now

AGR’s Executive Director, Sandra Kemp, didn’t mince words about the stakes of continued inaction. “Online betting is already a reality in Chile,” Kemp said. “The absence of regulation or attempts to prohibit it do not eliminate the activity; they simply push it toward operators that are not subject to standards, oversight, or accountability.”

That argument lines up with what’s actually happening on the ground in Chile. Regulators have already begun cracking down on unlicensed offshore brands — starting August 1, Chilean card issuers and payment processors are required to withhold 19% VAT on payments to operators the tax authority has flagged as non-compliant, including well-known names like Bet365 and PokerStars. It’s a workaround measure taken specifically because the underlying regulatory law still hasn’t passed.

Kemp said the goal behind AGR is proving that a segment of the industry is willing to operate under strict rules rather than in a gray market. “The key challenge is ensuring the industry operates under a clear regulatory framework that allows responsible, licensed operators to prioritize the protection of minors and vulnerable groups, safeguard adult users, contribute to public revenues through taxation, create employment opportunities, and support the development of sport in Chile,” she said.

What AGR Says It Stands For

The association laid out seven guiding principles it says are binding commitments for its current members and any operators that join later, not just talking points. Among them: strict access restrictions to protect minors and vulnerable groups, cooperation with regulators and lawmakers, anti-money-laundering compliance, sustainable tax contributions, responsible advertising, and active opposition to illegal gambling operators.

AGR positioned itself as a “trusted technical partner” to Chile’s Congress, executive branch, and regulatory bodies, offering to help shape the framework as debate on Bill 14,838-03 continues. The proposed law would replace the country’s existing Superintendency of Gaming Casinos with a new Superintendency of Casinos, Betting and Games of Chance, giving regulators real-time monitoring authority over licensed platforms’ bets, payments, and financial flows. It would also impose a 20% tax on gross gaming revenue, a 15% tax on user winnings, and a 2% carve-out of sports betting revenue for national sports federations.

The association pointed to how neighboring markets have handled the same transition, citing Brazil, Peru, and Colombia as regional examples alongside more established regulated markets in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. AGR also cited data from H2 Gambling Capital estimating that Chile’s online gambling market already generates roughly $625 million in gross gaming revenue annually, with that figure projected to climb to $1.445 billion by 2030 — numbers the group argues make continued delay increasingly costly for both consumers and the state.

What Comes Next

Even with the government’s added pressure, most industry observers don’t expect the bill to reach final passage before the end of 2026, given how long article-by-article committee review has already dragged on. In the meantime, AGR’s formation signals that at least a portion of the operators active in Chile see regulatory clarity — including licensing costs and tax obligations — as preferable to the current uncertainty, where enforcement actions like the new VAT withholding rule can arrive as a stopgap outside formal law. For bettors, a regulated market would mean licensed platforms with consumer protections similar to what’s now standard in other Latin American markets, though the timeline for that shift still depends entirely on Congress.