Pulse
LATIN AMERICA FOCUS ARGENTINA - ONLINE
Buenos Aires:
Changing perceptions and perspectives
Online gambling has finally been regulated in Buenos
Aires. New rules mean that that for the first time those living in the capital will be able to make a legal bet online via an approved number of sites monitored closely by the city lottery, Loteria de la Ciudad (LOTBA).
New rules are already in place in the province of Buenos Aires, the largest and most populous Argentine province. Slightly smaller in size than Italy, it is home to 16.65 million people or 39 per cent of the national population.
In Argentina, online gaming has been permitted since 2006 but only on a province to province basis and there is no national law in place which regulates online gaming. Crucially, up until now, online gambling has not been licensed in the capital of Argentina or in the province of Buenos Aires. Indeed, both have taken a dim view of offshore gambling in the past. In May 2012, the Buenos Aires Lottery took Bwin to court as players from
Buenos Aires province were found to be using the site while it only had a licence to operate in the province of Misiones. In March 2009, a city judge ordered that access to the
888.com.ar website be blocked for those living in the city limits.
Despite government intervention, according to city hall officials, online gambling has grown exponentially since then. Between 2018 and 2019, around 1,900 illegal gambling sites were still offering their services to those within the city of Buenos Aires alone. LOTBA has initiated legal proceedings against as many as 900 of them.
Offshore sites are especially attractive to Argentines because there is no land-based betting option available. Apart from horse racing available on track and at around 100 horse race betting outlets nationwide, the only other official sanctioned sports betting in Argentina has been an outdated football pools game called Prode. For years, Prode reported decreasing turnover and was finally terminated in 2018.
However, land-based gambling has been growing in popularity for several years and the lead up to online gambling legislation is best understood within the wider context of the development of the land-based sector in the province and the city as well as Argentina’s continuing economic crisis. In March, the national statistics agency (IDEC) said that Argentina’s economy shrank by 9.9 per cent in 2020, year-on-year, due to the pandemic. Tis is its worst slump in almost 20 years. Inflation continues to rise while the peso’s value has plummeted.
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA P97
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