Argentina’s online betting tax has already surpassed all of 2025 in the first nine months of 2026

Argentina’s tax take from legal online betting and online gambling hit $123.856 million in January-September 2026, already above the full-year 2025 total of $93.658 million. For PSPs and operators, the important bit is not just the number: the digital channel is now generating materially more tax revenue than cash-based betting, which is a clean signal of where the money and the payment rails are moving.

1. ARCA, Argentina’s tax and customs agency, said the indirect tax on legal online betting and online gambling brought in $123.856 million in the first nine months of 2026. Empiria estimates that, after adjusting for September inflation of 1.8%, that represented real growth of about 42% between January and September.
2. Lucas Tettamanti, an economist at Empiria, said on X that “0.03% of GDP” had already been collected in January-September this year, and that this was “more than all of 2025.” The 2025 full-year figure was $93.658 million, so the 2026 year-to-date total had already exceeded it by $30.198 million.
3. Monthly collections remained high even after the World Cup bump faded. The tax raised $17.255 million in September, compared with $16.975 million in August, but both were below the $17.798 million recorded in July, when the decisive matches of the 2026 World Cup were played, including the final between Argentina and Spain.
4. ARCA’s data also show how much larger online wagering has become than cash-based betting. Between January and September 2026, the category reported as “Apuestas en efectivo” generated $56.962 million, versus $123.856 million for the indirect tax on online betting and online gambling. That is a gap of $66.894 million in favor of the digital segment.
5. The broader market data line up with the tax figures. In the 2025 Argentina National Gambling Report by ALEA and Taquion Group, 71% of surveyed adults who bet did so through digital platforms. The study covered 3,858 valid cases, found that three in ten adults had bet over the last year, and that share rose to 69% among people under 29. It also said 86% of bettors did so frequently. On payments, 57% used e-wallets and 36% used bank transfers.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is simple: in Argentina, online betting is not a side channel anymore. It is the main tax-producing segment, and the payment mix is already tilted toward wallets and bank transfers rather than cash-heavy formats.