Chile online gambling ban backed by Senate committee as Brazil extends betting ban

Chile's Senate Economy Committee has backed two amendments that would ban online gambling platforms outright, undercutting President José Antonio Kast's plan to license and tax private operators. The committee approved both texts on Monday by three votes to one, with one abstention.

Brazil moved on a different track in the same week. Congress extended its ban on fixed-odds betting by 60 days, and a Supreme Court justice ordered lower courts to stop ruling on the measure's constitutionality.

Chile committee backs two prohibition amendments

Senate President Paulina Núñez and fellow National Renewal senator María José Gatica tabled the first amendment. Committee chair Gastón Saavedra of the Socialist Party and Broad Front senator Diego Ibáñez tabled the second. Saavedra said the committee would merge the two texts at its next session.

The vote turns the bill around. On 26 October, Kast's government sent the Senate amendments to legalise private operators, with five-year licences, 19% VAT on the difference between bets and prizes paid, and an extra 3% levy. The Chamber of Deputies has already passed the bill and the Senate approved it in principle; the Economy Committee is now reviewing it line by line. The Senate Finance Committee takes it next.

Ibáñez defended reopening the debate by pointing to a Supreme Court ruling on the platforms. "Why do I think we need to open the political debate?" he asked, according to ADN Radio. The court, he said, "declares this business illegal and orders all online betting houses to be closed".

Independent senator Matías Walker argued that regulation would bring operators into a licensing and tax system. "I think prohibition is the worst path," he said. "It's the best scenario for the companies that have never wanted to regularise, that have never wanted a state licence, that have never wanted to pay taxes."

What the two amendments would do

The Ibáñez and Saavedra text would replace the bill entirely. It bans operating, running, offering or advertising online betting platforms in Chile, and any platform that takes bets from Chile counts as operating in the country wherever its servers or domain sit. Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, Lotería de Concepción, authorised racetracks and land-based casinos are exempt. Offenders who break the ban for profit could face between 541 days and five years in prison and fines of 200 to 1,000 UTM, Chile's inflation-linked monthly tax unit. Internet providers, app stores and payment companies would have to block access, downloads and transactions.

The Núñez and Gatica version also rules out a private licensing market, with different penalties. Courts could block illegal sites permanently and restrict their payments and advertising. Offenders could face up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to 10,000 UTM in serious cases, CNN Chile reported, including deliberately targeting minors or operating in defiance of a final court blocking order.

Deputy Finance Minister Sebastián Vallebona suggested that rejecting the government's plan would leave children less protected from gambling addiction. RN senator Manuel José Ossandón rejected the implication. "I don't accept that," he said. "I worked for 20 years in poor neighbourhoods you don't even know, so don't come and tell me that."

Brazil Supreme Court freezes lower-court challenges

Justice Luiz Fux, reporting justice for the Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality at the Supreme Federal Court, ordered the suspension of all ongoing proceedings in ordinary courts that address the constitutionality of Provisional Measure No. 1,394. The order, reported by iGB on 10 November, stays those cases until the court gives a final ruling on four ADIs (8024, 8027, 8028 and 8035).

Fux granted a petition filed on 6 November by Prosecutor General of the Republic Paulo Gonet, who argued that rulings from lower courts create "legal uncertainty and asymmetrical enforcement of the law". Gonet cited preliminary injunctions granted to operators Stake and CDA Gaming, which the chief judge of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region overturned within one or two days, after a motion by the Office of the Attorney General of the Union. The prosecutor general's office identified 13 further lawsuits challenging the measure.

Fux based the decision on two federal statutes and the Supreme Court's internal rules. One of those statutes requires a single-justice ruling of this kind to be ratified by the full court. In his reasoning, Fux wrote of a "risk of legal uncertainty stemming from the possibility of multiple conflicting rulings", and of the potential authorisation of "an activity recognised as harmful and of high social risk".

Sixty more days, and no date for a ruling

Senator Davi Alcolumbre, president of the National Congress, signed Act No. 118/2026 on 10 November. The act, published in the official gazette on 11 November, extends the validity of President Lula da Silva's provisional measure by 60 days. SBC News reported the measure will now be valid until March 2027 unless struck down earlier.

Congress began its 120-day review after Lula announced the measure on 25 September, and extended the period to cover the parliamentary recess between 23 December 2026 and 1 January 2027. A joint committee of deputies and senators examines the measure first, then it goes to the floors of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Nearly 100 amendments have been submitted. iGB reported that the measure's initial validity period expires on 23 November, and that the congressional floor agenda has been locked since Monday because the provisional measure has not been voted.

At the Supreme Court's hearing last week, the two betting industry trade bodies, the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gambling and the Association of Games and Lotteries, made submissions, alongside other commercial groups, health professionals and the government. The Ministry of Finance defended the ban.

No date has been set for the court to rule on the ADIs. Chief Justice Edson Fachin has ordered joint adjudication of all cases concerning fixed-odds betting, municipal lotteries and Extraordinary Appeal 966,177, which addresses the legality of games of chance.