Argentina Trade Association to Propose Bills for Online Gambling Regulation

While the other US states are considering the possibility of legalizing online gambling within their borders, Argentina has another problem. The Board of the Lottery Association of Pools and State Casinos (ALEA) in Argentina, South America is planning to propose bills that would regulate online gambling in the country.

“According to ALEA, the chaotic licensing rights in Argentina provide little support for the people living in the country as well as for the industry and they want to fix the problem by proposing new online gambling regulatory framework on national level.”

The main objective of the Lottery Association of Pools and State Casinos in Argentina, which is a non-profit trade association, is to act as an adviser on issues associated with regulation and optimization of resources nationwide.

What ALEA Wants

Argentina is comprised of 23 provinces including Buenos Aires, an autonomous city in the state. The different forms of gambling within all provinces are chaotically regulated. Buenos Aires alone has 24 authorities that can regulate or run gambling products.

By proposing new regulatory bills for online gambling in the country that will respect the rights of the provinces, ALEA want to establish order in the chaotic system, which is also often corrupt.

ALEA believes that by introducing new formal regulatory system, foreign and unlicensed operators will be prevented from offering illegal gambling products and services in Argentina which do not contribute to the welfare of the community.

The first online gambling site was established in 2002 when casinos del Norte S.A. launched an online casino powered by CryptoLogic software provider. Since 2006, three more online gambling licenses have been issued, all by the provinces where the gambling operators must be located. In general, overseas operators currently dominate almost the entire online gambling market, but the biggest problems for US dollar deposits and cashouts in Argentina are its debt and issues with currency. Because of the shortage of US currency, the government has imposed an official exchange rate that varies almost 60% from that of the black market.

Gambling in Argentina

As of this writing, Argentina offers the following forms of gambling: casinos, sports betting, dog tracks, lottery, horse racing etc. The country has the biggest gambling market in South America and it holds 79 casinos and more than 12,000 slots along with cruise ship casinos and football betting.

Online gambling is also legal in the state. However, the fact that only locally based gambling operators can offers online gambling products and services, doesn’t stop the residents of Argentina from playing online casino games at offshore gambling sites, especially those that accept local currency as banking method. The government and authorities tried to ban offshore gambling sites in the state on two occasions (in 2008 and 2010), but there wasn’t enough support to implement these radical steps. Hopefully, ALEA with its regulatory bills will change the situation in Argentinean online gambling industry.