Roberto Vázquez proposes mandatory betting-risk training in Buenos Aires
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- Deputy Roberto Vázquez presented a Buenos Aires bill requiring gambling-risk training before wallet transfers to betting platforms.
- The proposed digital certificate would be valid for six months and need periodic renewal.
- The provincial Directorate General of Culture and Education would prepare and update the content.
Buenos Aires provincial deputy Roberto Vázquez has presented a bill that would require users to complete training on the risks of gambling addiction before sending money from digital wallets to gambling platforms.
Under the proposal, the training would have to be completed on entering the gambling site and before any transfer from a digital wallet. Users would receive a digital certificate valid for six months, which would have to be renewed periodically. The bill gives the provincial Directorate General of Culture and Education the task of preparing, implementing and updating an online course. The course content would cover the risks of gambling addiction, the psychological mechanisms that can favour loss of control over betting, and the dangers linked to indebtedness. The initiative also covers platforms based outside Buenos Aires and outside Argentina.
On implementation, digital wallets would have to publicise the training in their own apps and tell users that holding the certificate will be a requirement for transferring funds to online betting platforms. The bill also proposes working with national bodies and other provinces on cooperation mechanisms to extend the prevention measures to payments linked to online gambling. Vázquez said the six-month validity responds to the need for preventive information to stay current and be reinforced periodically.
Vázquez asked the provincial Minister of Government, Carlos Bianco, to set a date for a meeting with the Fuerza Patria bloc in the Chamber of Deputies. The stated purpose is to learn the position of governor Axel Kicillof and to coordinate criteria on the bills under discussion. Other proposals in the debate include a comprehensive online betting regulation bill backed by deputies Facundo Tignanelli and Micaela Olivetto. That bill provides for stronger controls on authorised platforms, advertising restrictions and a fund for social organisations in the province. Another Vázquez initiative would set a mandatory access fee for online betting platforms equal to the value of ten minimum bets. Under that proposal, the funds collected would go to prevention, assistance and training policies linked to problem gambling.