FEJA blocks seven illegal online casinos in the City
Seven online betting platforms were shut down in the Buenos Aires district. The blocking was achieved by the Specialized Gambling Prosecutor's Office of the Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor's Office, following complaints from two entities: CASCBA, the chamber that groups casino halls, bingo halls, and annexes, and LOTBA, the Buenos Aires lottery. The field work was carried out by the Judicial Investigations Unit of the MPF CABA.
What the investigators found describes operations without any filters. The sites operated outside of all regulation, without identity verification, without age control, and without user protection measures. Some of the platforms went a step further and adopted names similar to those of licensed operators, only to then redirect visitors to illegal sites.
The criminal framework is the same one the prosecutor's office has been using in this series of cases. The prosecutor's office, headed by Juan Rozas, classified the conduct under Article 301 bis of the National Penal Code. This provision covers exploiting, administering, operating, and organizing gambling when the corresponding authorization is lacking. The orders came from three Buenos Aires criminal, misdemeanour, and minor offense courts: number 4, number 21, and number 19, presided over by Agustín Riggi, Paula Núñez Gelves, and María Julia Correa.
The Buenos Aires offensive is not limited to websites. In September, 16 individuals, including influencers and public figures, were charged for promoting virtual casinos without permission. They reached damage repair agreements with the prosecutor's office and were obliged to disseminate information about the risks of illegal gambling. At that time, the agency reported that it had over 100 open cases involving influencers, streamers, and entertainment figures, and that blocking orders already exceeded 400 unauthorized betting sites.
The newest detail in this batch is that of imitated names, because it shifts the case from unlicensed operation to consumer deception, an area where the prosecutor's office gains tools that do not depend solely on Article 301 bis. On a regional scale, the more than 400 sites blocked by the Buenos Aires Justice far exceed the figures accumulated this year by Peru, with 86 platforms, and Chile, with 79 domains in a single month, although the comparison has the same limitation in all three cases, as the count measures the activity of the agencies and not how much the supply has shrunk, as it reappears under new addresses within a few days.
Tags: FEJA, Illegal gambling in Buenos Aires, Article 301 bis, LOTBA