Court of Appeals orders Subtel to define how it blocks casinos
The Santiago Court of Appeals has once again focused on the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications (Subtel) and demanded a detailed technical report on the mechanisms it uses to block access to online betting platforms. The resolution, dated May 22, comes within the framework of the protection appeal filed by Lotería de Concepción against Claro, Entel, GTD, Movistar, WOM, and VTR, the six operators that control Chilean connectivity. The appellate court, composed of ministers Juan Cristóbal Mera and Sandra Araya and lawyer Francisca Amigo, requested that Subtel specify the appropriate technical resources to prevent access to sites without legal authorization.
The case that prompted the official letter originated in September 2025, when the Supreme Court upheld Lotería de Concepción's protection appeal and ordered internet companies to immediately implement measures to prevent access to unauthorized online betting operators. That ruling consolidated the doctrine that online gambling is illegal in Chile unless expressly permitted by law, and that networks carrying traffic cannot facilitate activities outside the regulatory framework. Lotería de Concepción has since demanded that the blocking not be limited to the URLs identified in the original process, and that it also cover mirror sites that reappear with alternate domains.
The Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Romina Garrido, recently attended the Constitution Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to explain the actual scope of compliance. Her intervention left two definitions that the Court now seeks to put in writing. First, that Subtel is not a party to the lawsuit and lacks the authority to force operators to apply the judgment. Second, that the agency can recommend more sophisticated technical tools, such as deep packet inspection, known by the acronym DPI, and keyword filtering, capable of analyzing traffic in real time and reducing the evasion margin of unregulated operators.
The judicial requirement intersects with the parliamentary debate that Chile reactivated in May. The Executive granted urgent status to the bill regulating online betting platforms, which has been dormant in the Senate since 2022. The initiative proposes licenses, tax obligations, anti-money laundering mechanisms, and responsible gambling rules, all elements that are currently missing and leave the industry operating in a legal vacuum. The Chilean Association of Online Betting Platforms, which includes Betsson, JuegaEnLinea, Coolbet, and LatamWin, described the government's decision as a positive signal to unblock the discussion.
For Latin America as a whole, the Chilean case has become a case study on the limits of blocking as a public policy tool. Argentina and Brazil face the same dilemma: how to combine pressure from regulators and justice with the technical reality of internet providers, who can only act effectively with clear legal frameworks and technologies such as DPI or DNS blocking. If the Court of Appeals succeeds in getting Subtel to formalize a menu of measures, Chile will provide a concrete precedent for a region that is still debating how to close the door to illegal gambling without hindering the development of the regulated market.
Tags: Chile, Santiago, Chilean regulation, website blocking, Subtel, Lottery of Concepción, online betting LatAm