Chilean government questioned for not pursuing online gambling
Unauthorised online gambling again strained the relationship between Congress and the Executive in Chile, this time through the voice of senator Karim Bianchi, who took aim at the way the Government confronts the proliferation of platforms operating outside the law. The legislator questioned the lack of effective oversight of those houses and demanded clear definitions on how the State plans to curb a phenomenon that, he warned, advances faster than the official response.
The argument fits into a discussion that has been open for months in the country, fed by the absence of a specific legal framework for internet betting and by the insistence of different actors that the activity unfolds in a grey zone. Bianchi placed the focus on the Government's responsibility to drive controls and blocking tools, and exposed what he considers a gap between the discourse and concrete action against unregulated operators.
The discussion also touches closely on tax collection, at a time when the Internal Revenue Service has been trying to charge taxes to platforms operating without a legal framework, and in which the formal industry demands even rules against competitors that function without a licence. Bianchi's clash adds pressure to a debate combining user protection, revenue for the treasury and the increasingly urgent need for an ordering that Chile does not have today.
Tags: Karim Bianchi, José Antonio Kast, Agenda Against Organized Crime and Terrorism, online betting in Chile