Argentina’s lower house approves federal online betting bill, with credit cards and e-wallets under payment limits

Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill to regulate online betting, and the payment side is where the real teeth are. If the text survives the Senate in its current form, operators will have to rethink card acceptance, wallet funding, and even how deposits are authenticated.

1. The bill passed the lower house with 139 votes in favor, 36 against, and 59 abstentions. For Argentina, this is the first time online betting has been dealt with at the federal level rather than only by individual provinces. The document now moves to the Senate.
2. For payments, the proposal is blunt: credit cards would be completely banned for topping up gaming accounts. Debit cards would be allowed only within a daily limit set by the bank, effectively tied to the withdrawal limit at an ATM. Electronic wallets would also be limited to the available balance, subject to the same daily cap, and deposits would have to come from “real” money rather than credit funds.
3. The draft also bans the use of ANSES accounts, Argentina’s social security system accounts, for betting. That matters because it is not just another payment rail restriction; it is a direct attempt to wall off a state-linked source of funds from gambling activity.
4. On top of the funding rules, the bill introduces mandatory biometric verification through RENAPER, Argentina’s national identity registry, using facial recognition. Verification would be required at registration, at the start of each session, and when winnings are withdrawn. It also bans welcome bonuses, influencer advertising, and sports sponsorships.
5. Enforcement is not symbolic. Violations would carry fines in UVA, inflation-linked units, and unlicensed operators could face criminal liability of up to 10 years in prison. Alea, the Argentine association of lotteries, casinos and bookmakers, has already spoken out against the initiative, which tells you the industry expects this to bite.

For payment providers serving Argentine traffic, the practical takeaway is simple: this looks a lot like Brazil, where credit cards have already been pushed out of betting payments in practice. The broader Latin American signal is that regulators are moving away from credit products and toward debit cards and e-wallets, because those are easier to tie to a customer’s own funds and, in some cases, to bank-level spending limits. If you process for gaming in the region, the acceptance stack needs to be built around that reality, not around card credit.