Polla Chilena de Beneficencia

History and Social Mission

Polla was created in 1934, under the presidency of Arturo Alessandri Palma, when the Chilean state authorised a national football pools game to raise money for the Beneficencia, the public charity network. The company grew into a fixture of national life, and its draw events became weekly occasions. In the 1970s it launched Polla Gol, the football-forecast game that became its most culturally iconic product. In 1989 it added Kino, a numbers lottery with regular draws and rollover jackpots. As a state enterprise, it is not a private company: it operates by concession, under government oversight, and its profits go to the Chilean treasury.

Products and Retail Network

Polla's traditional business is built on physical distribution. Its games are sold through tens of thousands of authorised points of sale, including lottery kiosks and supermarket chains. Polla Gol asks players to forecast results on a card of national and international football fixtures, with prizes based on correctly predicted matches. Kino is a numbers draw with multiple prize tiers and rollover jackpots. The company also sells a range of instant-win scratch tickets, branded as rasca y gana. This retail network remains its main channel, even as digital habits change.

Digital Transformation and Online Platform

In the early 2020s, Polla launched polla.cl, a digital platform offering sports betting and online casino-style games. The platform was designed to give the state operator a legal, tax-paying alternative to offshore sites, and to build a compliant customer base before Chile's online gambling regulation is approved. Football is the core focus of the online sportsbook, reflecting the national popularity of Polla Gol.

Regulatory Role and Competition from Offshore Operators

As a licensed state operator, Polla is directly threatened by unlicensed international bookmakers and casinos that serve Chilean players without paying local taxes. The company has supported enforcement measures, including a case in which Chile's Court of Appeals ordered internet service providers to block access to unlicensed gambling websites. It has also publicly backed the proposed Law on Online Gambling, under which it expects to be treated as an authorised operator.

Market Position

Within Chile, Polla has long been the dominant legal operator in lottery-style and football-pool games. The wider competitive set now includes internationally known bookmakers and casino sites that operate offshore, as well as private operators that may enter the Chilean market once online gambling is formally regulated. Polla's advantages are its brand recognition, retail density and state backing, while its main challenge is speed of digital innovation.

Outlook

Polla enters its tenth decade with a strong brand and a unique public-service identity. It retains political support as the state's gambling instrument, but it must modernise quickly to compete with more agile private competitors. The implementation of Chile's online gambling law will largely determine whether Polla keeps its dominant position or becomes one regulated operator among many.