Subtel admits that the blocking clashes with VAT collection
The contradiction that the industry had been pointing out is now recognized by the government itself. Romina Garrido, head of Chile's Undersecretariat of Telecommunications, admitted that the decision by the Internal Revenue Service to charge digital VAT to online betting sites, supported by Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz, is somewhat contradictory to the order to block 42 sites belonging to those same companies. Both institutions fall under the Executive Branch.
In an interview with Universo radio, Garrido defined the limits of her jurisdiction. She stated that the Internal Revenue Service should be asked on what criteria it applies this charge, and that her department is responsible for executing a ruling, referring to the decisions made by the Supreme Court and the Santiago Court of Appeals. The phrase with which she closed the point was more direct: what is illegal for one undersecretariat should be illegal for the rest of the public entities.
Her argument is that she does not have the margin for decision. The courts, both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, have already established that these online betting platforms are illegal, and the role of the undersecretariat is framed by these resolutions.
The other new development from the interview is that the blocking is not limited to the 42 domains already identified. Garrido explained that they are working with a permanent protocol alongside the Superintendency of Gaming Casinos and telecommunications companies to detect new sites and order their blocking. She presented the scenario without euphemisms: the Superintendency could send them another batch of one hundred or two hundred sites tomorrow, and the companies will have to block them, because that is what is within their reach.
This mechanism specifically addresses the problem that emerged as soon as the order was issued: the appearance of mirror sites, meaning new addresses that platforms enable after their original domain is blocked. For this reason, Garrido described the procedure as a permanent and cyclical solution rather than a one-off operation.
Tags: Subtel, Romina Garrido, Internal Revenue Service, Jorge Quiroz, Superintendence of Gaming Casinos