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A court in Chile has ruled that broadcasting online gambling advertisements on television between the hours of 6am and 10pm violates national laws.
The Santiago Court of Appeals wrote in its decision that televised betting advertisements can harm the development of children and adolescents, agreeing with the decision of Chile's National Television Council (CNTV).
According to Law 18.838, existing hours of protection for minors are between 6am and 10pm, and the court wrote that broadcasting gambling ads during these times was “inappropriate for underage audiences, as it promotes an illicit activity”.
The court’s decision is predicated on the illegality of online gambling, a premise that offshore online platforms have fought in court, declaring again and again in the past two years that they are not illegal but merely unregulated.
A Supreme Court ruling in September of last year was the first time that a higher court explicitly stated that grey market operators were “illegal”.
Carlos Baeza, a Santiago-based lawyer representing multiple online platforms including Latamwin, Coolbet and Betano, told Vixio GamblingCompliance: “Although we do not share the interpretation of the Court of Appeals, which is totally opposed to the criterion established by the Public Prosecutor's Office, we consider that since online gambling platforms and their advertising is an unregulated activity, it should be governed by the general rules and, therefore, it is subject to the competence of the CNTV.”
He reiterated that issues like this one highlight the need for the regulation of online gambling platforms urgently, which would “contemplate international standards to protect users, as well as to give due protection to minors”.
“In this context, as long as there is no specific regulation for this industry, we understand and respect that the CNTV's criteria, ratified by the Court of Appeals, must prevail,” he added.
A pending bill to license and regulate online gambling, which was first proposed in March 2022 and was approved by the lower house of Congress late last year, is currently waiting for a vote in the finance committee in the Senate. The committee is currently dealing with more urgent budget matters, leaving online gambling for another, undetermined day.
Under that bill, online operators in the country will have a 12-month cooling-off period before they can apply for a licence and would have to pay nearly 38 percent of revenue in various taxes.
