Buenos Aires bill would ban online casinos and betting

A bill in the Buenos Aires provincial Senate would ban online casino games and sports betting for players in the province. Senator Federico Fagioli of the Fuerza Patria bloc has introduced the proposal, reported from mid-October and nicknamed the "Ley Lula" (Lula Law) by the provincial outlet Diputados Bonaerenses, after Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It would repeal Chapter VIII (articles 146 to 173) of provincial Law 15,079, the part that licenses online gambling. It is a proposal only: no vote date has been set and nothing has been enacted.

The ban would apply to the province of Buenos Aires only. The city of Buenos Aires and Argentina's other provinces have their own rules and are not covered: Argentina has no national online gambling law, and each province and the city regulate their own regime, according to the Biblioteca del Congreso de la Nación.

What would be banned

As described by Focus Gaming News, Radio Pacú and G3 Newswire, the bill would prohibit:

• sports betting, both before and during events;
• online casino games, including slots, roulette, blackjack and poker;
• other online games for money whose outcome depends wholly or mainly on chance.

Official lotteries, quiniela (the provincial numbers lottery run by Lotería de la Provincia) and draws run under the provincial lottery and casino institute, IPLyC, would be exempt. G3 reports that the ban would apply to customers in the province regardless of where an operator is based.

What would happen to player accounts

The bill sets a short transition, as drafted and reported by Focus Gaming News and G3:

• from the day the law takes effect, operators could not accept new deposits for the banned games;
• within 10 calendar days, they would have to stop new games and sessions, pull all advertising, promotions, bonuses and sponsorship, and block access for users in the province;
• within 30 calendar days, they would have to return each player's full account balance and send the IPLyC a report on balances, pending bets, prizes and refunds.

G3 reports that existing licences would end automatically 30 days after the law takes effect, and no new ones could be granted. The bill would also ban all commercial promotion of online betting in the province, including influencers, affiliates, bonuses and promo codes, and would task the IPLyC with blocking sites, apps and profiles that offer banned games.

In plain terms, a player in Buenos Aires province with money in a licensed account would have about a month to see it returned, and any bonus offers would disappear within the first ten days.

In his justification, Fagioli argues that betting from any connected device has removed "material, spatial and temporal barriers" that used to separate people from gambling venues, and that the question is now whether some forms of gambling are compatible with public health.

A competing bill, and doubts

Fagioli's bill runs alongside a separate proposal in the provincial Chamber of Deputies, led by deputies Facundo Tignanelli and Micaela Olivetto, which would keep online betting licensed but tighten it. According to next.io, it combines several earlier bills and covers identity checks including biometric verification against Argentina's national population register (RENAPER), advertising limits, self-exclusion and spending limits, and a new prosecutor's office in La Plata for illegal gambling. G3 reports it has yet to win the committee support it needs to advance. Radio Pacú reports that Tignanelli said he personally favours a ban but believes it would need national legislation.

Tomás García Botta, a partner at the law firm MF Estudio Abogados, told next.io that Fagioli's proposal could face legal obstacles, including whether it would breach the provincial constitution. "If you prohibit gambling, you leave considerable space for the unregulated sector to occupy," he said. IPLyC president Gonzalo Atanasof, according to next.io, has estimated that 80% of gambling in Argentina takes place illegally.

The nickname points at Brazil, where the government has also moved against online betting; see our coverage of Brazil's MP 1.394 betting ban and the Supreme Court hearing on 3 November. As of 28 October, it is a proposal only: no vote date has been set and nothing has been enacted.