Chile orders rapid blocking of illegal gambling domains to curb online betting
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
The Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones in Chile ordered telecommunications companies to block 37 new illegal gambling domains within 48 hours.
The order, issued on September 21, 2026, targeted domains and mirror sites previously validated by the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego. Companies including Entel, Movistar, Claro, GTD, WOM, and VTR received the notification and must report their compliance to the Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago. The government chose to use DNS blocking to disrupt access to these platforms.
This method translates web names into technical addresses, making it harder for users to reach the sites while minimizing the risk of affecting legal services. However, the strategy faces challenges as operators quickly create mirror sites and alternative addresses to bypass restrictions. Previous orders in the same month already saw the emergence of these alternative links.
Data from earlier in 2026 shows that brand searches accounted for more than 80% of organic clicks for many operators in the region, including Chile. This suggests that users often have specific platforms in mind, which may make it easier for them to find new addresses once the original ones are blocked. Because a single platform can operate under multiple domains, officials must continuously identify and validate new addresses to maintain the effectiveness of the ban.
Current public data does not yet show the specific impact of these recent blocks because most available traffic and search metrics were recorded before the September orders. To measure success, authorities need to track the total visits across all linked domains and compare them against periods before the intervention. The effectiveness of the 48-hour deadline depends on whether the government can block new domains faster than operators can migrate their traffic to them.
