LOTBA warns about the spread of illegal betting platforms among minors in Buenos Aires

The Buenos Aires City lottery regulator, LOTBA, is stepping up enforcement against unauthorized online gambling while also pushing a campaign aimed at keeping minors away from betting. For PSPs and operators, the point is straightforward: the regulated market is no longer competing only with licensed rivals, but with anonymous sites that can skip age and identity checks altogether.

1. Jesús Acevedo, president of the Lotería de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (LOTBA), said the agency is focusing on fiscalization actions against unauthorized gambling and on awareness initiatives to prevent minors from accessing online betting.
2. The campaign “Menores apostando no” is one of the main parts of that effort, built around warning teenagers about the risks linked to online gambling.
3. Acevedo also pointed to what he called a “trampa semántica” between playing and betting: in his view, the words used around gambling can help normalize betting behavior among young people.
4. LOTBA says one of its main concerns is the proliferation of unauthorized websites that do not have adequate controls to verify users’ identity and age. Compared with regulated operators, these platforms make it harder to prevent underage gambling and complicate enforcement.
5. The agency is carrying out inspections and blocking operations against clandestine sites as part of its strategy to reduce illegal supply. Acevedo also called for an urgent update of advertising rules, saying the online market and digital communication channels have changed faster than the current framework.

For the regulated side, the interesting part is not the warning itself — regulators warn about underage access all the time — but the mechanism: social media exposure, easier discovery of betting offers online, and unauthorized platforms that can sit outside the verification rules licensed operators have to follow. That is exactly where enforcement, advertising restrictions, and payment controls start to overlap.