Chile's Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel) ordered on Monday, September 21, the blocking of 37 new domains linked to online betting and gambling platforms operating without authorization in the country. The main internet providers, Entel, Movistar, Claro, GTD, WOM and VTR, have 48 hours from notification to enforce the measure, a deadline that expires this Wednesday, September 23.

This is the second major offensive in less than a month, and the numbers confirm what the industry already suspected: blocking alone is not working as intended.

A three-week timeline

On September 1, Subtel ordered the blocking of 42 betting sites, including Betano, Coolbet, Betsson, Rojabet, Jugabet, Stake and Bet365, plus platforms linked to public figures such as Naya Fácil, Arturo Vidal and Hernán "Nano" Calderón. The mechanism is DNS blocking, a method Subtel itself recommended to the courts as proportional and compatible with net neutrality.

Within 48 hours, at least eleven operators had resurfaced through mirror domains. Betano moved from lat.betano.com to latam.betano.com, Bet365 redirected to bet365.es, Novibet to lat.novibet.com and TonyBet to tonybet.cloud/cl. Betsala went further, emailing users the new address with incentives to keep playing.

On September 21, Subtel struck back with 37 additional domains, this time explicitly covering "alternative domains, redirects and mirror sites", validated by the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ). The list includes Betano, Betsson, Rojabet, Estelarbet, Betcris, KTO Bet, 1xBet, Marathonbet, Betway, Betfair, Betsala, Bet365 and Sportingbet.

On September 22, the conflict escalated to a new arena: a complaint filed with the Contraloría General de la República questions Betano's sponsorship of the "Corazón de Chile" fondas organized by the Municipality of Ñuñoa, a family event held during the Fiestas Patrias celebrations at the Estadio Nacional. The complaint demands to know who authorized receiving funds from a platform the SCJ considers illegal. The same day, Chilean media questioned why 16 professional football clubs still carry betting sponsors.

The Streisand effect: blocking doubled the searches

Google Trends data for Chile shows that search interest in "casino online" doubled since mid-August, moving from an average index of 5 to 7 points up to peaks of 20 to 23. The fastest rising queries belong precisely to the blocked brands: "betano casino online" grew more than 205,000%, "betano casino" over 204,000%, "casino online 20bet" over 120,000%, and "jugabet" over 52,000%.

Google's autocomplete in Chile today reflects user confusion: "betano chile oficial", "betano chile es confiable", "betano chile web". People cannot find the sites, and they are searching for them more than ever.

The underlying problem everyone acknowledges

Chile's legal land-based casino industry welcomed the blocks but warned they "do not solve the underlying problem", according to BioBioChile. The current procedure (identify a domain, validate it with the SCJ, notify the ISPs, wait 48 hours) is structurally slower than an operator's ability to register a new domain, which takes minutes.

Sandra Kemp, spokesperson for iGaming Responsable Chile, told Gaming Intelligence this week: "We do not question the Judiciary on the blocking, but its procedure leaves gaps".

The origin of it all is a protection appeal filed by the Lotería de Concepción, which the Supreme Court upheld in September 2025, banning the transmission and promotion of illegal gambling. Since then, Chile operates under a clear principle: commercial exploitation of online betting is illegal until a law authorizes it. That law is in progress, and in July five betting houses formed an association to actively push for regulation, a sign that the major operators prefer a licensed market over a domain war.

What this means for iGaming marketing in LATAM

Three takeaways for operators, affiliates and marketers:

Brand demand becomes the critical asset. When your domain can disappear in 48 hours, the most valuable asset is not the URL but branded search demand. Betano does not need you to find its site; it needs you to search "betano chile nuevo dominio". The data confirms people do exactly that.

The creator channel gains relative weight. With affiliate SEO volatile and traditional advertising under scrutiny (the Ñuñoa case shows that even a sponsorship at a local festival ends up before the Contraloría), streamers and creators with their own audiences become the most resilient communication channel for operators, and likely the most audited one going forward.

Regulation is the only way out, and marketing must prepare for it. Brazil has already regulated, Argentina is collecting (its indirect iGaming tax grew 41% between January and August), and Mexico is advancing. Chile is next. Brands that arrive at licensing with community, reputation and creator channels already built will start ahead of those that only bet on mirror domains.

Miela's take

At Miela we have operated in the Chilean and LATAM iGaming market long enough to recognize this pattern: regulatory pressure does not kill demand, it redirects it. The brands that survive these cycles are the ones that invested in owned audiences and trusted creator voices rather than rented traffic.

The Ñuñoa sponsorship controversy is a warning for the whole industry: in a pre-regulation market, every marketing move is under public and institutional scrutiny. Operators planning their 2027 budgets for Chile should assume that compliance-aware creator marketing, built on transparency and local expertise, is not optional. It is the only channel that will still be standing when the law finally arrives.

The 48-hour deadline expires on September 23. If the pattern holds, a new wave of mirror domains will appear before the weekend, and a third blocking list will follow in October. We will keep covering it.