The Buenos Aires mega-law would cut gaming sessions to 60 minutes
The Buenos Aires online betting project is entering committee with the strictest session regime ever proposed in the region. The Committee on Gambling, Lottery, and Problem Gambling Prevention of the provincial Chamber of Deputies will meet this Wednesday, October 14, in an informative session to begin analyzing the bill promoted by Facundo Tignanelli and Micaela Olivetto, marking the formal first step of the text in the parliamentary circuit.
Article 6 is what sets the automatic limits. The session closes automatically after 60 uninterrupted minutes of play, and the user cannot re-enter for the following hour. The third login within the same day triggers a 24-hour access block. After 30 minutes of a session, the system must alert the player, and if indicators of loss of control appear, it must suspend access. In addition, there are permanent functions to configure deposit limits and for self-exclusion.
Identification is the other pillar and modifies an existing law. The text reforms Law N° 15.079 to oblige authorized operators to implement real-time facial biometric recognition, required in four instances: when opening an account, each time logging in, when depositing or withdrawing money, and when the bet exceeds the amount set by regulation.
The rest of the bill covers everything from the user to criminal prosecution. Among its salient points are the complete elimination of bonuses and any incentives to attract players, the removal of the word "game" from all commercial communications, drastic cuts to advertising, including street billboards and the use of artificial intelligence, the obligation for the licensee to have entirely national capital, new fees on advertising spending and prize payouts, and a Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Illegal Betting created from scratch.
The declared objective of the regime appears in the text itself, which aims to prevent and address the harm caused by online betting, regulate access, operation, advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, and allocate resources from the activity towards health, community, and sports policies in the province.
The schedule managed by the promoters is tight. After the informative meeting, the official party's intention is to reach a plenary committee meeting on October 19, with Gonzalo Atanasof, head of the Provincial Institute of Lottery and Casinos, invited to present, to obtain a ruling that allows the project to be voted on in the chamber on October 20, although this calendar still depends on parliamentary definitions.
The caps in Article 6 are the part of the project that will encounter the most resistance, and not because of the cost they imply but because of the criterion they choose. One hour of play and three daily logins are limits applied equally to all users, both those who bet once a week and those with a problem, so the design opts for universal friction rather than focused detection. The contrast with Spain is exact and worth noting, because the Spanish regulator is currently finalizing a statistical model that classifies each account according to its behavior to apply measures only to those who show signs of risk. These are two opposing philosophies on the same problem: one puts the brake at the door and the other in the profile, and the Buenos Aires approach has the advantage of not needing algorithms or sensitive data processing, and the disadvantage that the player who finds it inconvenient has a click away an unlicensed platform that asks for nothing.
Tags: Online betting in Buenos Aires, Facundo Tignanelli, Responsible gaming, Law 15.079