Buenos Aires Committee to Weigh Bill Charging Operators 100% of Their Ad Spend

A provincial committee could on Thursday 12 November approve a 64-article bill that bans bonuses and makes every peso of marketing cost two. Its national-capital rule for licensees bites more slowly than first reported.

• The gambling committee of the Buenos Aires provincial Chamber of Deputies has called a meeting for Thursday 12 November to consider bill D-3634/26-27, which could receive its committee dispatch there, according to local reports
• The bill, filed on 28 September by Facundo Tignanelli, president of the Unión por la Patria bloc, and four colleagues, would make licensees pay a contribution equal to 100% of their advertising and acquisition spend
• It would ban bonuses, require facial recognition at every login and revoke a licence over a single case of underage play caused by failed checks, and would extend to the province the city's betting ban on child-support debtors
• New licences would require 100% Argentine capital, but the bill exempts licences already in force until they expire
• Nationally, Senate bloc leader Patricia Bullrich said on 6 November that the Argentina Senate will take up a stalled federal betting bill in the coming weeks

A Committee Meeting That Could Send the Bill to the Floor

The Comisión de Juegos de Azar, Lotería y Prevención de la Ludopatía, chaired by deputy Micaela Olivetto, will meet at 10:00 on Thursday 12 November, according to its order of the day. Four of the five bills listed are school and awareness programmes; the fifth is Tignanelli's "comprehensive regime for the prevention and treatment of the risks associated with online betting", co-signed by Olivetto, Soledad Alonso, Maite Alvado and Mayra Mendoza. Diputados Bonaerenses reported on 7 November that it could receive a dispatch there.

Gonzalo Atanasof, head of the Instituto Provincial de Lotería y Casinos (IPLyC), told the committee on 20 October that the province has seven licensed online operators, including bet365, Betano, Betsson and Stake, and that licensed play is about 20% of the online market, according to Diputados Bonaerenses: "That 80% of gambling, we are not able to control it." Of the bill's identity checks, he said: "With these changes it is absolutely impossible for minors to take part, except in cases of complicity."

What the Bill Would Change

The bill text amends Law 15.079, the province's online gaming law, and Law 15.131 on self-exclusion. Article 4 would require corporate licensees to be incorporated in Argentina with share capital "wholly of national origin", registered in the province and headquartered there. Article 62 exempts licences in force until their non-extendable term ends, with no extension or right to renewal.

Every advertisement aimed at the province would need prior, specific IPLyC approval, whether or not the operator is licensed elsewhere. Outdoor and transport advertising would be banned, and ads could not use the word "juego" and must say "Betting is not a game". Article 33 creates a "social liability" contribution equal to 100% of advertising, sponsorship and player-acquisition spend, payable before an approval takes effect; 70% would go to municipalities and 30% to the Ministry of Health.

A separate 3% monthly contribution on all prizes, which could not be passed to players, would fund neighbourhood clubs and athletes. Licensees would hold gross profits in a Banco Provincia account for 30 days, and the share belonging to foreign shareholders for 180 days, without remittance abroad. Sessions would close after 60 minutes of continuous play, and a third login in 24 hours would trigger a 24-hour block. A specialised prosecutor's office in La Plata would investigate unlicensed operators on its own initiative.

The National Bill

Bullrich, who heads the ruling La Libertad Avanza bloc in the national Senate, wrote on X on 6 November: "We are going to deal with this law in the Senate in the coming weeks. Limits have to be set." The federal bill, which restricts betting advertising, passed the Chamber of Deputies in November 2024 and lapses if the Senate does not vote before the ordinary session ends this month, according to Gaming Intelligence.

The National-Capital Rule Is a Slow Fuse, Not an Eviction

Agencia Paco Urondo reported in October that about 85% of the capital in the seven licensees is foreign and read the requirement as excluding almost the whole market. Article 62 says otherwise: current licensees keep operating under their existing ownership terms until expiry. The pressure comes at renewal, and through the 180-day lock on foreign shareholders' profits, which applies at once. Betsson, which reported record Latin American revenue in October, entered the province with a local casino partner; renewal would test such structures.

Marketing Would Cost Twice

A 100% levy on acquisition spend, paid up front, doubles the price of every campaign before the bonus ban removes the main tool for winning players. That suits legislators who see advertising as the harm, but sits less easily with Atanasof's own figure: if four in five bets already go to unlicensed sites, raising the licensed channel's cost of competing risks enlarging that share. Peru is tightening its own ad warnings; a levy on the spend itself goes considerably further.

The bill has a committee date but not yet a majority, and it still needs both provincial chambers. If it passes in this form, Buenos Aires would have one of the most restrictive licensed online markets in Latin America.