Buenos Aires Province’s Gaming, Lottery and Problem Gambling Prevention Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday, Nov. 12, to consider a wide-ranging online-gambling bill that would tighten rules for operators, advertising and player protection.
The measure, introduced in early October by provincial lawmakers Facundo Tignanelli and Micaela Olivetto, is formally titled the Comprehensive Framework for the Prevention and Management of Risks Associated to Online Betting. It has already been discussed in information sessions, and a favourable committee opinion could send it to a joint committee hearing before votes in the provincial House and Senate.
The proposal would address gambling addiction while introducing real-time facial biometric checks, limits on gambling sessions, restrictions on advertising and a ban on bonuses and other incentives used to acquire customers. It would also create a specialised prosecutor’s office to target illegal online betting.
Opposition lawmakers have proposed amendments to elements of the initiative but have not rejected it outright. The committee is chaired by Olivetto, according to G3 Newswire’s reporting on an earlier hearing attended by legislators from several political blocs and senior officials from the Provincial Institute of Lotteries and Casinos, known as IPLyC.
Gonzalo Atanasof, IPLyC’s president, has backed the bill while calling for separate changes to strengthen action against illegal operators. His proposals include creating a “presumed offender” category in the Penal Code, moving illegal gambling into National Law 27.319 on organised crime, and amending Article 301 bis so some defendants accused of running illegal gambling businesses could not receive probation.
Atanasof has argued that enforcement needs stronger tools because illegal operations often function from outside Argentina. He estimated that only 20% of gambling activity in Buenos Aires Province was regulated, while the remaining 80% was beyond authorities’ direct control and could be monitored only through cyber patrols and complaints.
The regulator separately said that 80% of online gambling occurred on illegal sites, although a regulator statement published Oct. 20 did not explain how that estimate was calculated. Atanasof put the value of illegal gambling across Argentina at $3.6 billion, contrasting it with a $1 billion International Monetary Fund disbursement and a $1.4 billion National Ministry of Justice budget.
Licensed provincial operators already face identity checks intended to exclude minors, including biometric validation, sworn declarations and cross-checks with Argentina’s National Registry of Persons. Atanasof said unauthorised platforms operated outside state oversight and allowed minors to bet, making them the main enforcement problem.
The committee’s Nov. 12 meeting could determine whether the Tignanelli-Olivetto bill advances to the next stage of the provincial legislature.
