Atanasof says 80% of online gambling in Buenos Aires Province is illegal

Gonzalo Atanasof, head of the Buenos Aires Province Lottery and Casinos Institute, told lawmakers that 80% of online gambling in the province runs through illegal channels. For PSPs and operators, the point is not the headline number itself but the policy direction: the province is pushing for more legal tools to go after unlicensed platforms, servers, advertising, and assets.

1. Atanasof made the statement on Monday before the Games of Chance, Lottery and Problem Gambling Prevention committee of the Buenos Aires provincial Chamber of Deputies, during debate on a comprehensive bill against online betting and gambling addiction. He was joined by Carlos Gallo, provincial director of Games and Exploitation, and Sebastián Silvestre from the institute’s Legal Affairs Directorate.
2. The official said illegal gambling moves around USD 3.600 million in Argentina. To give the figure scale, he compared it with the IMF’s latest disbursement of USD 1.000 million and the national Justice Ministry budget of USD 1.400 million.
3. In the authorized market in Buenos Aires Province, seven platforms operate: bet365, Betano, Betsson, BetWarrior, bplay, Sport.bet.ar and Stake. According to the data presented by the officials, the system has around seven million active accounts. With the exception of bet365, which is dedicated exclusively to sports betting, the other platforms derive about 30% of activity from that segment; the rest comes mainly from slots and virtual roulette.
4. The fund for clubs and scholarships, financed by 3% of prizes paid by the companies, accumulated $532 million between January and September. Carlos Gallo said that amount equals 76% of gross online gambling profit.
5. The institute is backing several legal changes to make investigations easier and complicate illegal betting networks: creating a “presumed offender” category to allow seizure of cash, assets and servers; reforming Article 301 bis of the Criminal Code, which carries prison terms of three to six years for operating games of chance without authorization; expanding Law 27.319 to include online gambling among organized-crime investigations; and tightening rules on advertising and controls.

The bill, known as the “mega law,” will continue its review on Thursday with a meeting of advisers. For high-risk payment providers, the direction is clear: Buenos Aires Province is moving toward a tougher enforcement framework while the legal market remains concentrated in a small number of licensed operators.