Argentine senator proposes Buenos Aires online gambling ban
Senator Federico Fagioli has tabled a bill nicknamed the "Lula Law" that would repeal the 2018 statute legalising online gambling in Buenos Aires province.
A new bill filed in Argentina seeks to overturn the law that opened the Province of Buenos Aires to licensed online gambling, with its author borrowing the name of Brazil's president for the proposal.
SBC Noticias reports that the bill, informally called the "Lula Law," was introduced by Senator Federico Fagioli of the Peronist party Patria Grande. It targets Law No. 15,079/2018, the legislation that first permitted regulated online betting and gaming in the province.
The nickname nods to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who signed Brazil's own gambling legalisation into law before his government moved to ban it outright on 25 September, nearly two years later. Fagioli's bill follows a comparable arc, aiming to shut down online sports betting, virtual slots, roulette, blackjack, poker and other cash-prize games.
Some categories would be spared, including lotteries, prize draws and quinielas, a long-standing Argentine lottery format.
Fagioli has framed the push around the reach of digital platforms rather than gambling itself. "The expansion of platforms has changed the traditional characteristics of gambling," he said, adding that betting from any connected device has stripped away the physical, geographical and time barriers that once separated people from land-based venues.
Under the bill, licensed operators would be barred from taking new deposits and would have to return the balances currently sitting in player accounts. Advertising, promotions, bonuses and sponsorships tied to online gambling would also be prohibited throughout the province.
The province's regulator, the Provincial Institute of Lotteries and Casinos, would be tasked with ordering the blocking of gambling websites and apps under the proposed law.
This is not the first attempt to curb online gambling in the area. Two years earlier, Gabriel Solano, a legislator in the autonomous City of Buenos Aires, floated a similar prohibition, citing worries over rising gambling participation among minors. That proposal never advanced into law.
Combined with the precedent set in Brazil, the renewed push is likely to unsettle operators active in the Argentine market. SBC News says it has approached several of the country's largest operators for comment.