APAL and AGR warn that without advertising there will be no channelization
The two associations representing betting platforms in Chile responded to the Executive's bill with the same framework: endorsement of the regulatory structure and rejection of the advertising chapter. The Asociación de iGaming Responsable and the Agrupación Chilena de Plataformas de Apuestas en Línea challenged the total ban on advertising and the veto on bonuses and promotions imposed on online operators by the proposed amendments, anchoring their stance on a single concept: channelization.
aPAL acknowledged that the government established specific guidelines to move forward with regulation and placed problem gambling prevention and player protection at the core of its proposal, prioritizing minors. However, it made the value of these advances conditional upon a prerequisite: that users actually choose regulated platforms. This double ban—a blanket prohibition on advertising and a veto on bonuses and promotions—"gravely impacts this objective," they argued, contending that a licensed platform prevented from building brand awareness and competing on price against illegal offerings fails to deliver the very protection that takes precedence over all else.
Lawyer Carlos Baeza, representing the group, framed the issue around effectiveness rather than principle. He welcomed the fact that the amendments include targeted prevention and responsible gambling tools, defining the next challenge as ensuring these measures actually work and that players opt for platforms subject to state oversight. For aPAL, international experience shows that the primary goal of any regulatory framework should be to steer players toward the supervised channel—the only one that offers genuine safeguards.
The AGR raised the same objection in more direct terms. In the entity's view, modern regulation "cannot confuse protection with prohibition," and advertising should be regulated rather than eliminated outright. It also broadened the list of those impacted beyond the sector: a blanket ban, it warned, hits the press, the advertising industry, and funding that sustains sports; discourages newly licensed operators from entering the Chilean market; and, above all, fuels the growth of unregulated offerings.
Its alternative proposal is to replace the ban with a regulatory framework based on specific conditions. The association calls for strict rules regarding broadcast times, frequency, content, and the protection of minors, arguing that responsible advertising can inform, prevent harm, and help users distinguish licensed operators from unlicensed ones. It applies the same logic to incentives: regulating how they are offered and promoted is not equivalent, it argues, to banning them.
There is one aspect of the bill that the AGR unreservedly endorsed—a point worth noting, as it tempers the perception of blanket opposition. The association considered the chapter governing market entry to be well-crafted, highlighting three specific decisions: that market access depends on meeting standards rather than an arbitrary cap on licenses, that the transition phase is subject to verifiable requirements, and that robust age and identity verification is enforced. Its conclusion is that the bill's success is not determined "at the front door," but rather by what happens once the player is already inside.
Yet this argument has a vulnerability that the industry itself has not addressed. Channelization relies on players being aware of and preferring the legal market. However, in a market where unlicensed operators are already entrenched and effectively advertising, the symmetric ban proposed by the bill reduces everyone to the same nominal silence while penalizing only those who have something to lose by non-compliance. This is the crux of the upcoming debate: a ban that applies equally to licensed and illegal actors is only effective if the state can enforce it against the latter—a capability Chile has yet to demonstrate.
aPAL stands for Agrupación Chilena de Plataformas de Apuestas en Línea and AGR for Asociación de iGaming Responsable, the two bodies representing online betting operators active in Chile—a market that does not yet issue licenses and where foreign platforms were required this year to register with the Servicio de Impuestos Internos and pay VAT. The 114-page Executive bill was introduced this week within the deadline set by the Senate, proposing five-year licenses with an annual fee of 1,000 UTM, alongside the advertising ban and restrictions on bonuses to which both associations object.
Tags: Chile, aPAL, AGR, Advertising