Subtel: Chile's block on online betting is ineffective
The Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Claudio Araya, publicly acknowledged that the blockade ordered by the Supreme Court against twelve online betting platforms is not achieving the expected effect. In a conversation with El Diario de Cooperativa, the authority explained that, although telecommunications companies complied with the judicial instruction, the mechanism is easy to evade and does not solve the underlying problem.
Araya detailed that the restrictions implemented by the telcos can only be applied to specific URLs included in a court order. However, the affected platforms generate mirror domains almost immediately, which neutralizes any blocking attempt. “The number of possible domain name combinations is practically infinite,” he noted, emphasizing that the most persistent users find ways to access through new addresses, VPNs, or private DNS.
The Undersecretary emphasized that the difficulty does not lie in the lack of willingness of local operators, but in technical and legal limitations. The Net Neutrality Law prevents providers from blocking sites on their own initiative, without an explicit court order, leaving them without tools to automatically pursue variant URLs or mirror platforms.
Additionally, Araya highlighted that the greatest weakness of the ruling is that the “offender” — the unauthorized betting houses — has no legal presence in Chile. “These companies operate from outside the country, have no headquarters or national legal personality, and with that the central purpose of the ruling is lost,” he stated. The result, according to the official, is a ruling that falls on the intermediaries — the telcos — but does not impact the actor generating the illicit activity.
The institutional vacuum is another critical point. “Today there is no State body with clear legal powers to determine which platforms are illegal and issue consistent blocking orders,” he added. This generates, according to Subtel, a scenario where each judicial measure is reactive, limited, and easily evaded.
The Inevitable Path: A Law Regulating Online Gambling
Faced with this scenario, Araya maintained that the only way to have effective tools is to advance the approval of the bill regulating online betting, currently under legislative urgency processing. In his view, the regulation would allow establishing clear criteria, empower a specialized regulator, and define oversight mechanisms with technological support.
“Regulating is not prohibiting,” the Undersecretary said. “It is establishing equal rules for everyone and protecting the public.” He also suggested that greater technical advice to the Judiciary would have allowed more efficient decisions. “Judges have legal competencies, not necessarily technological ones; greater support would have been useful,” he affirmed.
As long as there is no comprehensive regulatory framework, Araya warned, any blocking attempt will continue to be an insufficient “patch” and difficult to sustain over time.
Tags: Chile, Subtel, Online Casinos Blockade, Illegal Casinos Blockade