The national deputy of the Civic Coalition, Maximiliano Ferraro, presented weeks ago a bill to combat gambling addiction and prohibit the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of games of chance, both traditional ones that take place in physical rooms and casinos. He also targets online betting of all kinds.

The legislator explained that in recent years it has been seen that "gaming rooms have proliferated throughout the national territory, to which betting or virtual gambling platforms have been added."

"Today, unfortunately, Argentina leads in Latin America the ranking of annual growth in online gambling, and according to different surveys, it also leads the table in terms of illegal gambling, as well as in the lack of protection that users have in these systems," said Ferraro. in dialogue with NA.

The project seeks to combat gambling addiction 

Among other points, the initiative prohibits the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of games of chance, both traditional ones that take place in brick-and-mortar casinos and betting houses, as well as online betting of all kinds, which are booming.

"There is a huge and constant bombardment of advertising and offers of online platforms and games," denounced Ferraro, and emphasized the exponential growth of sports betting advertising in the programming of sports channels.

Another of the salient points of the project is that it limits the means of payment to the use of cash or debit cards with a limit equivalent to that allowed for withdrawals at ATMs, excluding the use of credit systems, as well as those benefit cards. social help.

For the online betting modality, the project proposes the biometric identification of users at the beginning of each session, which guarantees that minors are excluded from access.

At the same time, online gaming platforms and systems are required to comply with a series of responsible gaming requirements that allow consumers to access true information about the bets in which they participate, their user history, time online, mechanisms self-exclusion, the ability to set time and money limits and alerts, and help and assistance sections.

“There is a Latin American survey of online gambling users where Argentines lead the ranking of lack of protection, that is, they did not have any type of alert from the systems about their problematic gambling patterns. In other countries like Brazil they do have them,” compared Ferraro, who accompanied a request for a report presented by the representative of the same political space Marcela Campagnoli for the Government to provide updated information on gambling addiction.

Another key aspect of the project is that it creates a national registry of voluntary self-exclusion, which allows the person who considers that they have problems with gambling to self-exclude themselves for up to 24 months, and online establishments and platforms must enforce this prohibition.

Registration is valid not only for the jurisdiction of the person in question but also for the entire country based on the articulation and interoperability of the already existing registries. Families may also request the registration of a family member in the registry, which will be effective only with their voluntary consent.

The bill also establishes minimum criteria to be followed by local authorities regarding the operation of physical betting rooms in relation to their location, opening hours, proximity to ATMs, and prohibitions on customer loyalty strategies.

Among other measures, the obligation is established for rooms and platforms to reproduce dissuasive messages and public communication and assistance channels, responsible communication manuals, awareness and dissemination campaigns will be available.

The project incorporates transparency requirements through a regime of incompatibilities for gaming license holders and bettors, as well as principles to safeguard the security and protection of personal data.

All of these minimum measures and conditions have in the project sanctions of penalties and fines for non-compliance by the owners and third parties involved.