Chilean Polla: Gambling addiction treatment cost to match new law
Macarena Carvallo released a figure that freezes the legislative debate. According to her projections, the State will have to spend USD 1.2 billion annually on mental health to mitigate the damages of online gambling, nullifying the tax benefits.
While the Chilean Congress continues debating the fine print of online gambling regulation, Macarena Carvallo, president of the Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, decided to put a devastating financial argument on the table. In an interview with Las Últimas Noticias, the executive warned that the legalization of platforms could end up being a bad deal for the treasury if hidden costs are not taken into account.
Carvallo’s calculation is alarming. According to studies managed by the state company, recovering and treating digital gambling addicts will cost the Chilean State approximately USD 1.2 billion per year. The irony, according to the director, is that this figure is practically equivalent to what is projected to be collected in taxes if the law is approved as currently proposed. In summary, what comes in through one window would immediately go out the other to cover public health expenses.
15-year-old adolescents and the role of influencers
Carvallo’s criticism goes beyond the economic and points to a dangerous cultural shift. Historically, Chile maintained a restricted gambling policy for more than a century, understanding the activity as a tolerated but controlled vice. However, the emergence of offshore operators has broken that dam of containment.
The data presented is worrying: the average starting age for betting has drastically dropped to 15 years old. For the head of the Polla, much of this responsibility falls on aggressive advertising on social networks. Carvallo harshly criticized influencers and athletes, even mentioning a former captain of the national team, for lending their image to promote betting sites to underage audiences, normalizing risky behavior.
A superficial debate
Despite Supreme Court rulings ordering the blocking of illegal sites, the reality is that these platforms remain operational and visible. For Carvallo, the parliamentary discussion has not been up to the circumstances.
Her position is that the debate has focused almost exclusively on how to collect taxes and how to divide the revenue pie, ignoring the fundamental prior step: deciding whether Chilean society wants to abandon its historic protection model to free the market, assuming the gambling frenzy that this could entail.
Tags: Chile, online betting Chile, La Polla Chilena