The block had barely landed when the workarounds began. Less than 48 hours after Chile's Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel) ordered the country's ISPs to block 42 unlicensed online betting URLs by DNS, at least a dozen of the sanctioned platforms had already migrated to new mirror domains, and were actively telling their players how to keep betting.

Rather than ceasing operations, the blocked operators moved their web addresses, swapping local .cl extensions for international domains or tweaking the spelling of their brands, placing themselves outside the list the authority had instructed providers to suspend. Several notified the migration directly to their customer base: Coolbet announced the move on social media, Epicbet confirmed its site was live at a new address, and Estelarbet and Betsala emailed their users with instructions, and in some cases incentives, to move their activity to the new domain.

Who Moved, and Where

The mapping communicated by the platforms shows how mechanical the maneuver is. Betano moved from lat.betano.com to latam.betano.com. Coolbet replaced coolbet.com and coolbetchile.com with apuestacoolbet.com. Betsson shifted from betsson.com/cl and betsson1001.com to betsson1002.com/cl. Jugabet became juga-bet.cl, Rojabet relaunched at rojabet2.com, Betsala at betsalavip.com, Estelarbet at estelar.bet, Novibet at lat.novibet.com, TonyBet at tonybet.cloud/cl, Epicbet at epicbet.io, and 1xBet redirected its Chilean traffic to a localized path on its main domain. Bet365, whose z2.bet365.com mirror was on the list, pointed users to its Spanish-facing site.

The retention playbook was just as direct. Coolbet promoted the move with a free-credit code on Instagram. Betsala assured users that "your account remains the same, you don't need to register again: your username, password and balance are kept." Rojabet sent a similar message citing "recent updates," confirming that balances, bets, transactions and promotions would continue as normal. The list of blocked sites includes platforms tied to public figures, such as Juega con el King, linked to footballer Arturo Vidal, Casino Nano, associated with Hernán "Nano" Calderón, and Nayafacil-903, named after the influencer Naya Fácil, who publicly distanced herself from the operator this week, clarifying she is not an owner and had only provided advertising services in the past.

A Response the Authority Already Anticipated

None of this caught Subtel by surprise. The September 1 procedure was explicitly designed to be applied successively: the Lotería de Concepción or other claimants report new domains, subdomains and mirror sites, the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) certifies which ones operate without authorization, and Subtel notifies Entel, Movistar, Claro, GTD, WOM and VTR with a new batch to block within 48 hours.

Subsecretary of Telecommunications Romina Garrido described the mechanism as "permanent and cyclical" in a radio interview this week. "Tomorrow the Superintendencia could send us another batch of 100 or 200 more sites, and the companies will have to keep blocking them, which is what we can do," she said, reiterating that Subtel is executing a judicial mandate: the September 2025 Supreme Court ruling that declared unauthorized online betting illegal, enforced through the DNS blocking mechanism ratified by the Santiago Court of Appeals in August.

Why This Matters for the Industry

The speed of the response answers the open question left by Monday's order: DNS blocking disrupts distribution, but it does not by itself remove supply. Each blocked domain can be replaced in hours, and every replacement triggers another certification and notification cycle that takes days. The result is an enforcement treadmill that raises the cost of operating illegally without eliminating it, exactly the dynamic that strengthens the case for the licensing framework Chile has been debating, potentially in force by 2027.

There is also a marketing story inside the enforcement story. The operators that survived the block did so through their direct channels: email databases, social followings and CRM programs built over years of operating in the country. Player migration happened in hours because these brands own their audience relationships. That is precisely the asset that becomes worthless, or at least unusable, the moment a licensing regime requires local compliance to operate and advertise.

Miela Insight

Our reading of the first 48 hours of enforcement is threefold. First, blocking is a filter, not a wall: it raises friction for casual players and cuts discovery through search, but determined users follow the brand, not the domain. Second, the mirror-domain cycle has a ceiling. Every migration burns brand equity, confuses players and creates openings for impersonators and phishing, while each new batch is faster to certify than the last. The treadmill favors the regulator over time. Third, the strategic window is now. Operators and suppliers serious about Chile should be building their licensed-market playbooks today: compliant creative, vetted local creators, and retention infrastructure that will still be legal when the framework arrives. The brands that treat this cycle as a temporary inconvenience are the ones that will not survive the transition.

FAQ

Are the mirror sites legal in Chile?

No. The platforms operating them were certified by the SCJ as unauthorized, and the Supreme Court ruling covers the activity itself, not a specific domain. New addresses are incorporated into successive blocking batches once validated.

Do players keep their balances on the new domains?

The operators say yes: accounts, passwords and balances carry over to the mirror sites. Players should be aware that these platforms operate outside Chilean law, with no local consumer protection.

Can Subtel block the new domains as well?

Yes. The procedure is explicitly successive: new domains and mirror sites reported by claimants and certified by the SCJ are added to new blocking orders with the same 48-hour execution window.

When will Chile have a licensing framework?

Lawmakers have been revisiting online betting regulation, with a structured licensing framework potentially entering into force by 2027.