Opposition rejects problem gambling bill in Deputies
The new bill on problem gambling prevention and online gaming regulation that the Argentine government sent to the Senate generated a strong opposition reaction as soon as its text was known. Deputies from different blocs accused the ruling party of protecting the business of legal platforms by avoiding advancing on the commercial heart of the sector: advertising, promotions, and sports sponsorships.
The initiative, presented on Friday, May 23, concentrates its punitive action on illegal gambling and on minors' access to platforms, two issues that current legislation already prohibits. It does not incorporate most of the restrictions that were included in the half-sanction approved by Deputies in November 2024, which remains stalled in the Upper House and which the new proposal ultimately displaces from the agenda.
The Civic Coalition leads the offensive
National Deputy Mónica Frade, from the Civic Coalition, stated that the Executive's text is not about problem gambling prevention but about reaffirming support for online betting. She recalled that the 2024 half-sanction included a total ban on gambling advertising, a mechanism equivalent to that applied to cigarettes. In her words, the new project avoids touching the heart of the gambling business and ends up favoring legal platforms that only want to capture the mass of players from illegal ones.
Frade also questioned the administrative authorship of the text. She affirmed that the project was not prepared by the head of Sedronar, Roberto Moro, but by the Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation, Federico Sturzenegger. And she urged Congress to resume the project approved in 2024 instead of moving forward with the new official initiative.
Deputy Maximiliano Ferraro, also from the Civic Coalition, expressed himself along the same lines, accusing the Government of siding with the betting companies' lobby and ironically summarized the criticism: it seems that the only addiction that worries is that of someone who spends money outside the business enabled by the State.
What the official text proposes and what it leaves out
The Executive's project proposes penalties of three to six years in prison for those responsible for illegal platforms, domain blocking, and restrictions on payment circuits used by clandestine operators. It also establishes penalties of two to four years in prison for those who provide essential financial, technological, advertising, or digital services to unauthorized platforms, provided it can be proven that they were aware of the illegality of the activity.
The core of the opposition's criticism points to what the project does not touch. It does not prohibit advertising of legal gambling in media, social networks, or mass events, it does not veto welcome bonuses or acquisition promotions, and it does not intervene in commercial agreements between operators and football clubs. The only explicit advertising limitation prohibits linking participation in gambling with personal, professional, or social success, or suggesting that betting entails social acceptance, a wording that the opposition considers very lax.
A debate that crosses the entire region
The tension between health prevention and the sustenance of the advertising business runs through a large part of Latin American markets. In Brazil, the state of Rio Grande do Sul approved a law with very strict advertising restrictions that was challenged before the STF by the National Association of Games and Lotteries. In Chile, Polla denounced production companies and agencies for advertising online casinos. In the Dominican Republic and Colombia, new regulations also advance on responsible gambling criteria and marketing aimed at young people.
The Argentine debate is at the center of this same regional discussion. While the Executive defends a scheme focused on illegal gambling and the protection of minors, the opposition argues that without strict regulation on advertising and sponsorships, the law ends up favoring the expansion of the legal business. The Senate now has two opposing paths on the table: to advance with the official proposal or to resume the half-sanction of 2024, a decision that will mark the direction of online gaming in one of the most sensitive markets in the Southern Cone.
Tags: Argentina, gambling addiction Argentina, Civic Coalition, Monica Frade, Maximiliano Ferraro, Argentina online gambling regulation