Buenos Aires lawmakers move 22 online gambling bills toward a common anti-addiction framework

The Buenos Aires legislature’s gaming, lottery and gambling-addiction prevention committee has started sorting through 22 bills on online betting, with October set as the target for an initial vote in the lower house. For PSPs, acquirers and operators, the interesting part is not the political choreography but the list of controls under discussion: identity checks, biometrics, ad restrictions, wallet rules and tighter action against illegal operators.

1. The Commission of Games of Chance, Lottery and Gambling-Addiction Prevention met for the second time and began reviewing the various initiatives submitted over recent years. The bills come from different blocs and cover different approaches to prevention, regulation and enforcement, which means the committee now has to do the annoying but necessary work of turning 22 separate texts into something that can actually move.
2. Commission chair Micaela Olivetto said October is the deadline for the lower house to advance an initial approval. To get there, the committee wants to concentrate the review of the filings and reduce the current dispersion of proposals. In other words: fewer versions, more chances of a bill surviving contact with the chamber.
3. Among the measures under review are stricter identity verification and biometric controls to keep minors off betting platforms. Other proposals would restrict advertising, promotions and sponsorships by gambling companies, while also adding prevention work in schools and clubs, early detection of problematic behavior and assistance for affected users.
4. The package also includes ideas to limit access to betting platforms from certain connectivity networks, regulate the use of virtual wallets and step up enforcement against illegal gambling. One initiative even calls for repealing the chapter of Buenos Aires legislation that regulates online gambling, which gives you a sense of how wide the policy spread is inside the same committee.
5. The committee will also summon Gonzalo Atanasof, head of the Provincial Institute of Lottery and Casinos, before it tries to merge the texts into a unified draft. Legislators want to hear what controls are currently applied to licensed platforms, how biometric verification systems work and what measures are in place against illegal operators, alongside the Buenos Aires government’s current prevention and control policies on online betting.

The immediate relevance for high-risk payment providers is straightforward: any serious push on biometrics, wallet controls or network-based access restrictions can change how operators onboard users, move funds and document compliance in Buenos Aires. The legislature has not settled on one model yet, which is the part that matters most for anyone deciding whether to enter, stay in, or tighten controls around the market.