Alejandro Riquelme proposes blocking payments to unauthorised betting platforms in Chile

Chilean deputy Alejandro Riquelme proposed blocking credit card payments and bank transfers to unauthorised online betting platforms. Riquelme proposed that the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) work with the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero and the banks to stop those transactions. The report says this is a proposal made during the legislative debate, and that no implementation has been announced.

Riquelme considers blocking domains insufficient, because platforms enable mirror sites in under 24 hours. As background, he cited the blocks that the Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel) ordered in September 2026 on 42 web addresses. According to reports cited in the debate, various platforms enabled mirror sites in under 24 hours to get around the restrictions. In September 2025 the Supreme Court ordered the blocking of betting sites operating without authorisation, and it later had to intervene so that the restrictions also covered mirror addresses.

The proposal covers credit card payments and transfers, including the international operations used to put funds into the platforms. Riquelme acknowledged that operators could look for alternative ways to receive money. Applying the measure would require defining how the bodies involved and the financial institutions would coordinate, according to the report.

Riquelme said that, until a rule is approved, the activity is illegal under the Supreme Court's criterion. He also said he did not agree with the superintendent that the activity merely lacks regulation.

The Senate approved in general the bill to set a regulatory framework for online betting in August 2025. The bill remains in its second constitutional stage. According to the report, the bill seeks to set operating conditions for platforms, oversight and user-protection mechanisms, and greater transparency of the sector's financial flows.