Leandro Santoro denounced the gambling lobby in Congress and targeted LLA and the PRO

The National Congress faces a marathon week with debates on various laws, just a few days before the closing of the 2024 ordinary sessions. In this scenario, the deputy of Unión por la Patria, Leandro Santorodenounced that there was “strong game lobby“in the parliamentary building in the prior to the start of the session.

In a message through social networks, Santoro also denounced that the legislators of Freedom Advances and the PRO they speculated”to the end with the Quorum to not address the gambling addiction law“In detail, the project that is being discussed in the Lower House seeks to establish firm regulations on online betting, with the focus on improving access controls to these platforms by under 18 years old.

But the Union for the Homeland deputy did not stop there. In his text, he also denounced that there was sectors that pressured in the run-up to the session so that the necessary number of benches was not reached to enable debate on the project.

“Strong Gaming lobby in Congress! LLA and the PRO speculating until the end with the Quorum to not deal with the law of GAMBLING,” he denounced.

Finally, after four consecutive calls dropped Due to lack of quorum, the project that seeks to legislate online betting to implement policies against gambling addiction will be debated by the Chamber of Deputies. With the presence of 137 deputiesthe session was enabled, which, given the 30 speakers and issues of privilege, could be extended for 10 hours until a vote is held.

Online betting: what the project is about

The proposal that obtained a majority opinion seeks to prohibit advertising, promotion and sponsorship of online gambling of any kind, including made by influencers, entertainment celebrities, athletes, sports institutions and posters in stadiums.

If the project is approved, online betting and gambling advertising will be allowed only inside casinos, bingo halls, racetracks, other betting houses or lottery agencies. The impact would reach different private and civil society sectors and even Argentine soccer: the Professional Soccer League – and also, 28% of the first division teams -, They have advertising from online betting sites.

Another of the outstanding proposals of the text is that limits payment methods to the use of debit cards with a limit equivalent to that allowed for withdrawals at ATMsthe same limit that is authorized for virtual wallets. In this way, it would prohibit granting of bonuses or recruitment vouchers by betting houses, as well as the use of credit systems and social assistance benefit cards.

One of the most important problems that the project seeks to address is the easy access for minors to these platforms. Thus, the official text provides the biometric identification of the users at the beginning of each session on the betting pages and after playing for a while, using the database of the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER) to validate identity remotely, through facial recognition.

Furthermore, it is also determined that gaming platforms and systems online meet a series of responsible gambling requirements that allow consumers to access true information about the practices in which they participate and detailed information about: your user history, online weathermechanisms of self-exclusionpossibility of set time and money limits and alerts and help and assistance sections.

Lastly, it is also expected create a national register of voluntary self-exclusion. The same will serve so that the person who believe you have a gambling problem can self-exclude for up to 24 monthsand establishments and online platforms must enforce this ban. The project establishes sanctions of penalties and fines against non-compliance by the owners and third parties involved of between 3 to 10 years in prison.