Chile Opens Search for New Head of the Casino Gaming Superintendency

Chile’s Ministry of Finance released a call on September 13 to appoint the next head of the Superintendency of Casinos (SCJ), which has been vacant for seven months since Vivien Villagrán stepped down in February.

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Applications will remain open until September 28. Candidates must have “at least three years of experience in management or leadership positions in matters of supervision and/or regulation.” The call also states that experience in “control, auditing and/or process analysis and modeling” will be valued, alongside intermediate English proficiency.

New Leadership Faces a Changing Gambling Market

The incoming administration will oversee an industry that has shed about 20% of its jobs in the last seven years, and has been impacted by online gambling.

Regulatory modernization is explicitly mentioned in the recruitment notice of the Ministry of Finance. One of the expected activities is to “develop and implement proposals to update the regulatory model of the gambling industry, incorporating new trends, technologies and sustainability criteria to strengthen its harmonious development with the environment.”

The appointment comes amid a debate in Chile about the current gambling regime and its ability to adapt to technological developments and the rise of online gambling.

Senate Advances Online Gambling Regulation

A Senate Economy Commission is studying a bill that would create a structure for online gambling. At a recent technical meeting with the Executive, legislators discussed the goal of establishing an online betting market that is regulated, transparent, safe, and taxed in Chile.

The current approach to regulation was also highlighted as having tensions within it at the meeting. The Internal Revenue Service (SII) and the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications (Subtel) gave details about the condition of online wagering websites, which led lawmakers to question the “incoherence” between the bans on betting websites and the collection of value-added tax (VAT) from websites in operation.

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According to Subtel, 42 websites had been requested to be blocked, and SII reported that 39 websites were now registered for tax purposes. The tax authority also said that the taxes on online betting are paid on a quarterly basis and that some US$100 million in revenue is expected in October.

Proposed Rules Focus on Consumer Protection

Senators Saavedra, Walker and Celis have suggested a number of options that could be incorporated into the online gambling bill. These include consumer protection measures related to mental health, identity verification, and controls to prevent minors from accessing betting platforms, such as biometric verification.

The proposals also contain a National Responsible Betting Policy that will help to prevent problem gambling. These are other recommendations for restrictions which would restrict payment methods, ban monetary and physical-prize incentives called “hooks”, and ban wagering on athletes, sports executives, coaches, referees and other public officials involved in sporting events.

Licensing, Taxation and Enforcement Measures

The planned licensing system will only allow companies to operate with licenses if they are formally registered in Chile and have an office and address. Senators also want more transparency in who the ultimate owners of betting companies are, and that they are effectively owned, as well as restrictions on advertising at times deemed inappropriate for minors.

In terms of taxation, there is a proposed specific gambling tax, which will be used for community sports, for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling, and for the Common Municipal Fund.

It would also beef up the authority of the SCJ, Financial Market Commission, SII and Financial Analysis Unit to monitor the market and penalize illegal operators. The future leadership of the SCJ is at the heart of a new regulatory landscape that is being proposed, with technological blocking, financial traceability and economic crimes legislation sanctions among the proposed enforcement options.

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Source: SBC Noticias