Zona de Azar Argentina – Argentine Sports Betting Law Project: Restrict and Limit its Reach

Argentina.- June 26, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com  Among priests and teachers of secondary schools, concern is growing for progress among teenagers in sports competitions, online casinos and virtual lottery games.

For this reason, national senator Beatriz Avila (PJS) presented the legal projects with the purpose of regulating online gambling, restricting its access, limiting its advertising reach and warning about the risks of gambling, especially among young people and children, which are find themselves in a context of vulnerability and expose misleading or false information.

“A large part of the information that these betting platforms provide is misleading and opens the doors so that young people enter with ease, attracted by advice from influencers”, said Avila and added that these betting houses have “shown an alarming growth in Argentina, putting children and teenagers at risk, who can access to bet whenever there are no restrictions”.

The first of the projects is about the creation of the National Régimen de Regulación de Juegos y Apuestas Online, which obliges online gaming agencies to comply with a series of requirements such as the verification of identity and age; limitations on advertising and promotion; responsible gaming tools for gamblers and self-exclusion; availability of responsible information within the gaming platform, and training of personal customer service.

Among other measures, the project establishes that advertising, sponsorship and other forms of communication must contain the text “Compulsive gambling is harmful to health”, along with the free care line of the prevention and assistance program for compulsive gambling. It must also include a warning about the impossibility of minors participating in online games.

Furthermore, it restricts the appearance of sportsmen, famous figures or figures of public relevance, except when they are the protagonists —directly— in the responsible game message in commercial communication. “The inclusion of these relevant figures and the message transmitted cannot be associated directly or indirectly to which their success and relevance derives from their participation in these votes”, specifies the text of the parliamentary initiative.

The second is a law project that implements a preventive campaign aimed at students from public and private schools to raise awareness about the risks of online games and games in the educational sphere. These are pedagogical and psychopedagogical activities in establishments at all levels designed to provide content to recognize the problem of addictions as a problem that affects public health.

As the project stipulates, the program will be financed, on the one hand, with one percentage applied to the total number of online bets, falling to the online betting companies. And, on the other hand, with contributions, donations, subsidies and contributions made by physical, state or private legal entities and all the resources that the National State could contribute.

“The development of this type of campaigns is of utmost importance, and its financing comes from the income of those companies that promote the online game and profit from this practice, which must be carried out with responsibility and awareness of what its abusive use implies, taking into consideration the vulnerability of minors”, concluded the Tucuman senator.

She edited: @_fonta www.zonadeazar.com