A new bill has been submitted in Chile calling for sports betting advertising to be banned at sports events and with teams.
Although sports betting advertising has increased in recent years in Chile, Marco Antonio Sulantay, Deputy for the Coquimbo region, will submit a bill to the Lower House to prohibit this kind of advertising around soccer.
Sulantay, a member of the Sports Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, recalled that the companies that operate in Chile do it so from abroad and “without paying any type of taxes for the millions of dollars in profits they generate.”
“It’s necessary to ban them from being sponsors of sports events and clubs”, he said, and asked for the Ministry of Finance to “make decisive progress in regulating their operation in Chile and for them to pay the respective taxes.”
Moreover, the legislator said that the advertising from betting companies “has taken over sports events” and emphasized that sponsorships mainly aim at soccer clubs. According to Sulantay, “it can become a serious problem, such as the participation of minors in sports betting,” as El Dinamo reported.
To justify the proposal, Sulantay talked about problem gambling and said that “users can profit with smaller bets, but lose everything in a single bet and become desperate to recover that money with larger bets.”
Recently, the casino operator Dreams filed a complaint about illegal gambling operations against an international company, which was added to the more than 20 complaints that the Superintendency of Gambling Casinos (SCJ), the local regulator, has filed with the Public Ministry since July 2021.
On the other hand, Alejandro Weber, Chile’s Undersecretary of Finance, revealed at the beginning of March that the government will seek to regulate the online gambling market, which would contribute around $55m a year in taxes.
The most recent figures from the local regulator, the SCJ show that there are already 900 online gaming sites and platforms, representing a market worth approximately $150m.
The details shared indicate that the companies would be able to obtain a five-year renewable license or a temporary, non-renewable six-month license. All types of games would be allowed, except for lotteries and games that attract minors.
