Chile mandates foreign betting platforms to pay VAT
The Chilean tax authority has taken a step that alters the online gaming landscape in the country. The Internal Revenue Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos - SII) issued Exempt Resolution N°69, dated June 2, 2026, which mandates foreign sports betting platforms, online casinos, and other digital gambling sites to register under a simplified regime and pay Value Added Tax (VAT) on transactions conducted with users residing in Chile. The measure incorporates these operators into the same tax mechanism already used by other international digital service providers operating within the national territory.
The SII framed the decision within a principle of tax equity. According to the agency, all economic activities that generate income in Chile must be taxed, regardless of where the companies providing them are domiciled. The resolution stipulates that VAT applies to the total consideration received by these platforms and also provides for the regularization of previous tax obligations, with the possibility of demanding payment for up to 36 past tax periods.
A resolution that separates tax matters from regulatory ones
The Internal Revenue Service itself took care to clarify the scope of the measure. Its role, the agency emphasized, is to oversee compliance with tax obligations, not to determine whether an economic activity is legal or illegal. That definition falls to other state bodies, which leaves the sector in a peculiar situation: platforms may become compliant with the tax authorities even if the substantive regulation of online betting remains unresolved in Congress.
The bill seeking to create a specific framework for online betting is currently in its second constitutional process in the Senate, after several years of legislative debate and cross-pressure between international operators, land-based casinos, sports organizations, and health authorities. SII Resolution 69 arrives in this context and, in practice, becomes another piece of the Chilean regulatory puzzle.
aPAL celebrates, land-based casinos reject
The market reaction was immediate and polarized. The Chilean Association of Online Betting Platforms (Agrupación Chilena de Plataformas de Apuestas en Línea - aPAL), which brings together international online operators, welcomed the measure with enthusiasm. For the industry association, the decision corrects a situation that prevented them from accessing the same tax system available to other foreign digital providers and provides legal certainty to the sector, in addition to reinforcing the need to advance with the specific regulation being discussed in the Senate.
The Chilean Association of Casinos and Gaming (Asociación Chilena de Casinos y Juego) countered the message. The executive president of the entity, Cecilia Valdés, described the resolution as a disguised regularization and warned that the mechanism ends up incorporating into the state system operators that the Chilean Supreme Court itself deemed illegal in various rulings. For land-based casinos, paying taxes does not transform an illegal activity into a legal one, a phrase that summarizes the discontent of a sector that complies with licenses, fund traceability controls, identity verification, geolocation, and player protection.
Latin America observes
Chile once again brings to the table a dilemma that spans the region: how to deal with platforms operating from abroad, attracting local players, and still lacking specific regulation. Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina have already taken different paths to resolve this tension, with varying results in terms of revenue collection, consumer protection, and competition with the land-based offering. Resolution 69 sets a strong precedent in the Chilean case and compels Congress to accelerate the processing of the bill to prevent the market's organization from being left to partial responses from the tax authorities, while integrated and authorized operators in the region continue to demand clear and common rules to compete on equal terms.
Tags: Chile, Online betting VAT, Internal Revenue Service, aPAL, Online gambling regulation Chile, Land-based casinos LatAm