Buenos Aires Regulates Online Gaming

Argentina's capital and the country's largest province, Buenos Aires, has passed the online gambling regulation that is a part of the 2019 budget for this region of the country. Buenos Aires will, therefore, be able to work on full integration of their law measures for online casino games such as video poker, slots, sports betting and even horse racing.

Operators who wish to obtain iGaming license and operate online casinos in Buenos Aires will have to be physically present within the province. They will also have to pay the 15% GGR tax which was approved by the local government.

Another 2% in administrative fees will have to be handed out to Instituto Provincial de Loteria y Casinos, which is the province's regulatory body. They will act as overseers for the entire sector and will be keeping an eye for any irregularities as well as implementing adjustments to the market's legal framework.

Coming Into Effect on January 1st

Those who manage to acquire the license can hold on to them for 15 years, after which they will expire and will have to be renewed...

...and although it's not yet officially known how many licenses will be issued at first, the media speculates that there should be seven of them available.

There will be harsh punishments for those who do not comply:

Operators will have to enforce a full range of responsible gambling measures and controls, such as offering safeguards and opt-out/self-exclude options to players, deposit and time limitations etc.

Those who are found guilty of failing to comply with these requirements will be become subject to heavy financial fines or even revoking of the license.

The government of Buenos Aires will use the taxation revenues to fund and invest in various social programmes in the province. This will be accompanied by a 2% tax on slot machine winnings which will also contribute to social investments.

There are no dates for licensing process set as of yet, and the budget will come into effect on January 1st.

A Rising Force?

Argentina is a country of 44 million inhabitants and, along with Brazil, South America's most developed nation...

...That makes for a potentially very successful market for online gambling which is still in its infancy – quite unalike land-based gambling which is already well-established in this country.

In total, 73 cities have 106 legal gambling facilities of some kind, with horseracing being of particular interest to Argentinean gamblers beside the traditional brick-and-mortar casinos.

Buenos Aires itself has 8 gambling venues, 1509 gaming machines (including slots) and 154 table games. Country's largest casino is Capital Federal's Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo.

Source:

“Buenos Aires passes iGaming legislation”, igamingbusiness.com, December 7, 2018.