Carlos Silva Alliende assesses Brazil’s online betting reversal and Chile’s regulatory framework
Regulation1 min read
An interview with consultant Carlos Silva Alliende examines Brazil’s reversal on regulated online betting after 21 months and the lessons for Chile as it considers rules for online gambling. Silva argues that regulatory stability supports investment and proposes international cooperation, information-sharing and recognition of foreign certification laboratories in Chile’s future law.
Brazil has advanced towards prohibiting its regulated online betting market, 21 months after its launch, while Chile debates rules for online gambling, according to regulatory consultant Carlos Silva Alliende. Brazilian lawmakers submitted more than a hundred amendments to change the provisional measure.
Silva, a former prosecutor and head of the legal division at Chile's SCJ, said the Brazilian government had identified family debt, mental health and the exposure of children and vulnerable people as social harms in Provisional Measure 1.394. He said the government considered improvements to regulatory mechanisms alone insufficient. In Silva's assessment, social costs rose faster than the regulator could demonstrate control over advertising, payments and operator conduct, prompting a prohibition as a precautionary last resort.
Silva said regulatory stability was essential to attracting and retaining gambling investment. He questioned a requirement in Chile's bill for separate companies to operate physical and online channels. He proposed that Chile's future law provide for international cooperation, information-sharing and recognition of foreign certification laboratories.