Argentina bans child support debtors from casinos, online platforms
National deputies for Entre Ríos, Guillermo Michel and Marianela Marclay, have introduced a bill to create the Federal Registry of Child Support Obligation Defaulters (REFIOA). This initiative seeks to establish a nationwide prohibition preventing defaulting debtors from entering or remaining in casinos, bingo halls, betting agencies, and authorized online gaming platforms.
The primary objective is to ensure the effective fulfillment of child support payments, eliminating jurisdictional gaps that currently allow defaulters to evade local sanctions by moving between provinces.
The proposed restriction would operate through a judicial resolution in cases of serious non-compliance, defined as owing three consecutive or five alternate payments. By elevating this measure to a federal scale, the project aims to give national effectiveness to judicial decisions, overcoming the limitations of existing provincial registries in districts such as San Juan or Buenos Aires, which currently lack fluid inter-jurisdictional coordination. As Deputy Michel highlighted, the State cannot ignore a situation where territorial breadth creates inequalities that facilitate the evasion of these obligations.
The project is based on alarming data from UNICEF Argentina 2024, which indicates that more than 56% of non-cohabiting mothers do not receive child support payments, a figure that rises to 68% when irregular payments are considered. For Deputy Marclay, the law responds to a social urgency that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable households, providing real tools to protect the best interests of the child. REFIOA will operate under the purview of the National Executive Power with federal interoperability, aligning with the constitutional hierarchy that protects the right to child support.
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