Deputy Roberto Arroyo questioned the continuation of betting houses in Chilean football.
Chile.- Deputy Roberto Arroyo, a member of the Sports and Recreation Committee, submitted a document requesting the National Professional Football Association (ANFP) to report on the sponsorship contracts it had signed with online sports betting houses.
The document is addressed to the president of the ANFP, Pablo Milad, who is asked to disclose the current status of these contracts, considering that both the Supreme Court and the Executive Power have stated that these were illegal operations.
The legislator said: "We have many pending issues with the ANFP regarding the fact that they are still using advertising from betting houses despite the Supreme Court having delivered its verdict and the Minister of Justice also established that their contracts were illegal."
In this regard, Arroyo wondered "How lawful or legal can it be for sports clubs to use a logo of something that is illegal? Because in Chile it has already been determined that all betting systems were prohibited."
In that line, the document requests to know "why they continue to operate" the online betting houses, an activity that was classified as illicit. "This is as if the main sponsor of football was a criminal gang, with that we are financing Chilean football," he criticized.
See also: Ruling in Chile: confirmation of a fine to Entel for betting advertising during child protection hours
The deputy, who is a member of the Sports and Recreation Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, extended the document to the Ministry of Justice to find out if they are aware of the contracts between the betting houses and the ANFP and, in case they continue to engage in illegality, take action on the matter.
It is worth remembering that in September 2023 and according to what was established by the Supreme Court of Chile in a ruling, five football clubs officially withdrew the advertising of online betting houses from their uniforms on the last date of the First Division championship. These are Coquimbo Unido, Deportivo Ñublense, Everton de Viña del Mar, Audax Italiano, and Unión La Calera, which had signed sponsorship contracts with the betting house Betway in January 2022.
Furthermore, in October of that same year, the National Professional Football Association (ANFP) ended its link with Betsson, the main sponsor of the first two categories of the national football, by the company's own decision to terminate it.
