Chubut charges ten cashiers from an illegal betting network
The role is called a "cajero" (cashier) and is the linchpin of any clandestine betting network. Ten people from Esquel and Comodoro Rivadavia have been charged in Chubut for performing precisely that function: bringing in new users, loading them with chips, and managing the money for platforms operating without authorization.
The charges were formalized by the Specialized Unit for Cybercrime and Digital Evidence (UFECYED), part of the provincial Public Prosecutor's Office, after four hearings at the Judicial Office of Rawson, where Guarantee Judge Eve Ponce authorized the opening of the preparatory investigation.
According to the prosecution team's hypothesis, led by Attorney General Eugenia Domínguez alongside official Ruth Saigg, the structure advertised informal betting sites using social media and other digital environments. Money moved through a tangle of electronic accounts and virtual wallets, used both to deposit and withdraw funds generated by the operation.
The legal figure is the same one being applied throughout the rest of the country. Article 301 bis of the Penal Code imposes a prison sentence on anyone who exploits, administers, or organizes systems that capture gambling without the endorsement of the corresponding jurisdictional authority.
The complaint that initiated the case came from the regulator itself. The Social Assistance Institute, Lotería del Chubut, is the body that oversees the sector in the province, and since the activity operated without its authorization, it directly impacted provincial public coffers. For this reason, both the Chubutense State and the Institute became plaintiffs through the State Prosecutor's Office.
What comes next is tracing work. The judge gave the prosecution six months to complete the investigation, a period during which forensic IT experts and financial analysts will track the money's movement through electronic wallets. The objective is threefold: to gauge the real volume of the business, to establish how much each defendant is responsible for, and to ascertain if there is a still-unidentified hierarchy above the cashiers.
The case repeats a pattern that Argentine prosecutors have been dismantling in various provinces. In the City of Buenos Aires, FEJA this month dismantled a network operating via WhatsApp and agreed with sixteen influencers on awareness campaigns for promoting unlicensed platforms. In all cases, the entry point is the same: a physical person who receives the money and converts it into chips, the only part of the chain that has a name, address, and bank account in the territory.
Tags: UFECYED, Illegal gambling in Chubut, Article 301 bis, Chubut Lottery