A bill seeks to ban online betting for child support debtors
Those who owe child support can no longer enter a casino in Buenos Aires province, and now they might also be excluded from betting platforms. Viviana Guzzo, a deputy from Fuerza Patria, presented a bill that prohibits individuals listed in the province's Registry of Child Support Debtors from opening, maintaining, or using an account on online gambling and betting platforms, a restriction that would also apply to those who are jointly responsible for such debt.
The prohibited operations are enumerated. According to the specialized media outlet Diputados Bonaerenses, if the law is approved, those affected would not be able to open new accounts on platforms enabled in Buenos Aires territory, nor maintain or use existing ones, nor make deposits, nor place bets.
The technical path involves two laws. The initiative modifies Law 15,079, which regulates gambling and online betting in the province, and Law 13,074, which regulates the operation of the Registry of Child Support Debtors, so that debtors are included in the list of persons with prohibited participation and that the operations falling under the registry's restrictions are expanded.
In her reasoning, the legislator points to the permanent availability of the digital channel. Guzzo argues that the idea is to exclude from electronic, computer, and telecommunications gambling anyone who fails to pay child support, and warns about the risk of family resources ending up being used for betting to the detriment of parental responsibilities.
The provincial precedent is recent and already in effect. In December 2025, the Buenos Aires Legislature passed a law prohibiting entry to casinos, bingos, and authorized gaming halls for those included in the Registry of Delinquent Child Support Debtors. Law 15,589 assigns personnel of these establishments the task of preventing access and the Executive Branch the task of supervising compliance, with sanctions ranging from a warning to temporary and definitive closure depending on the severity and recidivism. Public statistics cited in the bill indicate that as of December 2025, the Buenos Aires registry had 6,127 registered individuals, and 98.1 percent were men.
On the other side of the provincial border, a digital version is already operating. In August 2026, the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires approved a law that prevents child support debtors from opening an account, maintaining it, depositing, betting, and withdrawing money on authorized platforms in the district, and obliges operators to verify in real-time whether the user is listed in the corresponding registry.
The bill also does not arrive alone. It enters an already busy Buenos Aires legislative agenda, where Facundo Tignanelli and Micaela Olivetto have just presented a mega-project of 64 articles to establish a comprehensive regime for the regulation and prevention of problem gambling, with reinforced biometric controls, limits on session time and access, advertising restrictions, prohibition of bonuses and incentives, and new financial contributions for health policies and for social and sports entities. The ruling party wants to bring it to a committee plenary next week.
The difference between the in-person and digital models is operational, not declarative. Law 15,589 relies on an employee watching the door, while an online prohibition only works if the platform consults the registry in real-time before each operation, which is exactly what the Buenos Aires city regulation already requires and what this project would need to not remain merely on paper. It is also worth putting the scale into context, because 6,127 registered individuals are a minimal fraction compared to a market that the Legislature itself estimated last week at US$1,656m monthly, so the fiscal effect of the measure is practically nil and its real value is preventive, adding another barrier to a risk profile already identified by the State.
Tags: Child support debtors, Online betting in Buenos Aires, Viviana Guzzo, Law 15.589