Argentina, Brazil, US unite against illegal gambling
The growth of illegal online gambling has forced regulators from the continent's main jurisdictions to sit at the same table and acknowledge an uncomfortable starting point: national schemes are insufficient to contain a phenomenon that operates across borders. The discussion took place during Legitimuz Day 2026 in São Paulo, on a panel that brought together authorities from Brazil, Argentina, and the United States to define a minimum level of cooperation.
A Shared Diagnosis
The meeting was attended by Fábio Macorin, Undersecretary of the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance of Brazil; Brian Krolicki, Vice President of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and former Nevada regulator; Ezequiel Domínguez, Director of the Lottery of the City of Buenos Aires; and Giovanni Rocco, National Secretary of Sports Betting and Economic Development of Sport of the Brazilian Ministry of Sport. All agreed that the illegal offering exploits the gaps between legislations, digital platforms, and financial systems.
Krolicki provided the perspective of a jurisdiction with seventy years of regulation. The former Nevada regulator warned that the North American model offers universal principles such as integrity, supervision, regulatory independence, and transparency, but it is not directly exportable. For the executive, online gambling poses a different challenge than land-based casinos because digital platforms have no fixed borders and criminals move much faster than states.
Each Country, Its Open Front
Domínguez described an Argentine scenario marked by its own federal complexity. The director of LOTBA explained that the twenty-four jurisdictions function as twenty-four different countries, a structure that may serve to regulate land-based casinos but becomes insufficient when bets cross provincial borders in milliseconds. He estimated that close to 80% of bets occur outside regulated environments and described Buenos Aires' response: a specialized prosecutor's office, penalties of three to six years for illegal operators, platform blocking, and campaigns in schools and clubs.
Macorin acknowledged that Brazil was late to regulation. Before the federal regime came into force in January 2025, the country accumulated years of fraud, misleading advertising, and predatory operators. With only 80 employees in the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, compared to Nevada's 400 professionals, Brazil aims to forge alliances with Anatel for site blocking, with the Ministry of Health for self-exclusion programs, with ANJL for the laboratory that detects illegal sites, with CONAR for advertising, and with the Digital Council to articulate with Meta, Google, and TikTok.
Rocco added the ingredient that makes the Brazilian case particular: the role of the instant payment system Pix, present in over 95% of bets. This concentration turns the financial system into an unprecedented enforcement tool, capable of tracking flows that remain opaque in credit card-based jurisdictions. For Latin America, where several countries are preparing their own regulatory frameworks, the São Paulo discussion sent a clear signal: without regional cooperation, national regulation loses effectiveness.
Tags: Brazil, Argentina, United States, São Paulo, LatAm gambling regulation, illegal online gambling, LOTBA, SPA Brazil