Mendoza bill would require biometric age checks for online betting platforms

A bill in Mendoza would require one-time biometric authentication to verify that users of online gambling platforms are over 18. For PSPs, operators, and tech vendors, the important bit is not the policy language itself but the operational one: facial verification at the start of each session, plus a hard ban on storing biometric data.

1. Verónica Valverde, a lawmaker from the Partido Justicialista bloc, introduced the proposal as part of the debate over minors accessing online betting in Mendoza. The bill would add extra verification controls for access to online gambling platforms, websites, and apps in the province.
2. The core requirement is a mandatory one-time biometric authentication system to confirm that users are adults. The draft says facial verification would take place at the beginning of each session, using a “double blind” mechanism focused solely on determining whether the person is over the age threshold of 18 years.
3. The bill would apply as public-order rules to natural and legal persons that exploit, operate, market, or promote virtual betting in Mendoza, whether or not they hold an official concession. That is the kind of drafting that matters to payment and platform providers, because it is aimed at the whole chain, not just licensed operators.
4. Operators, technology providers, and intermediaries would be forbidden from keeping, storing, recording, compiling, or commercializing facial templates or biometric data collected during authentication. Once the check is completed, the biometric information would have to be destroyed immediately and irreversibly.
5. The bill says age declarations, manual entry of personal data, and age-warning notices would no longer count as valid verification tools. In its rationale, Valverde argues those methods do not provide enough protection against minors accessing betting platforms, and the text also links underage access to risks associated with problematic gambling.

For compliance teams, the interesting part is the data-handling constraint. This is not just “prove age”; it is “prove age without retaining the evidence,” which has obvious implications for identity vendors, session design, and any provider that relies on reusable biometric records.