Chile has updated the anti-money-laundering rules that apply to its 25 licensed casinos, replacing decade-old guidance with a risk-based framework that also covers terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The new circular raises reporting and governance obligations for casino operators and municipal concessionaires, and brings the sector into line with the standards used for other obligated subjects.
The Superintendence of Casinos of Juego said the joint circular was issued with the Unidad de Análisis Financiero as Circular No. 63 for the UAF and No. 150 for the SCJ. It is designed to align casino compliance with UAF Circular No. 62, which applies to other regulated entities, and to embed the risk-based approach into operators’ policies and procedures.
The official text says the framework is built around risk. It defines risk as the probability and impact of a negative event linked to money laundering, terrorist financing or proliferation financing, taking account of threats, vulnerabilities and mitigation factors.
Among the most significant changes, casinos must register with the UAF when they begin business, update any registration changes within 10 business days and cancel the registration within 10 business days after their operating permit ends. They must also designate a compliance officer at management level, with due independence and outside the gaming staff, and notify both regulators within 10 business days of the appointment.
The compliance officer must be named by the board, and a substitute must be designated for absences. The circular says the UAF will not accept the role for anyone convicted of the offences listed in article 27 of Law No. 19.913, including money laundering-related crimes and terrorist financing, and former UAF or SCJ officials must wait six months after leaving office before being accepted.
The reporting side has also been tightened. Suspicious-operation reports, known as ROS, must be filed as soon as possible through the UAF channel, with no monetary threshold or fixed periodicity, and must include the supporting documentation. Casinos must set internal procedures to protect the security, confidentiality and timeliness of those reports, document them in their prevention manual, and use the alert-signals guide published by the UAF and SCJ.
The circular also requires structured analysis of suspicious cases, with the steps taken and sources consulted recorded, and the register kept for five years. Operators must check all clients against the United Nations Security Council lists identified in the circular, keep evidence of those checks for at least three years, and immediately file a ROS if a listed person or entity is found.
Cash reporting is now more explicit. Casinos must file a semiannual report, known as ROE, for all cash operations above $10,000, or the equivalent in Chilean pesos at the observed exchange rate on the day of the transaction. If there were no such operations in the period, the operator must send a negative report.
The circular also requires permanent electronic records for cash operations, suspicious operations and due diligence and customer-knowledge files, including records tied to operations over $3,000. It says the operator must verify that ROE filings were correctly received and, if needed, correct them within 10 business days of the reporting deadline.
The SCJ said the overhaul strengthens prevention rules for money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, and introduces differentiated due diligence based on customer risk. It also adds a Prevention Committee and new obligations for the Compliance Officer, while updating rules on records, politically exposed persons, prevention manuals and staff training.
In a January 2025 normative report, the UAF said it was created under Law No. 19.913 to stop the financial system and other sectors being used for money laundering and terrorist financing, while the SCJ was created by Law No. 19.995 and is responsible for supervising casino installation, administration and operation. That report also noted that the two bodies issued a joint circular in 2014, and said Chile’s GAFILAT review in 2021 led to intensified follow-up on its compliance progress.
UAF director Marcelo Contreras said the new circular updates a framework that had gone more than a decade without substantive change and brings in an approach based on risk and international recommendations. SCJ superintendent Eduardo Cáceres said the revision reflected close working ties between the two agencies, noting that more than half of prevention inspections in 2025 were carried out jointly.
The circular takes effect on 1 October 2026.
