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In the latest effort to curtail gambling advertising in Argentina, a federal senator has presented a bill to ban online sports betting and gaming operators from advertising in traditional media and on social networks.
The bill, introduced in the Senate in late July, explicitly states: "All expressions, statements and content broadcast in digital spaces will be covered by this ban."
Anabel Fernández Sagasti, who authored the bill, is a senator from Mendoza and a member of the Justicialist Party, which is a successor to the Peronist Party.
Her bill is the latest in a recent deluge of legislative measures on both the state and federal levels to curb online gambling, but it is also the strictest on advertising thus far.
Most of the efforts to date have been limited to stopping young people from participating in gambling or came with exceptions to a total ad ban.
Last month, Argentina's federal Ombudsman's office also submitted a proposed bill to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, calling for a ban on all untargeted advertising and bonus offers.
Other federal bills in Argentina with similar aims include Deputy Eduardo Toniolli’s proposed bill, which would limit advertising by banning bonus offers and any ads targeted at minors. Toniolli’s proposal would still enable advertising to adults who have opted in to receive marketing offers.
Toniolli has cited the Netherlands as an inspiration, stressing that his proposed bill “distinguishes between non-targeted advertising, which reaches all types of recipients regardless of age range, and advertising directed via the internet, which can be directed to a specific audience”.
Days after Toniolli’s bill was introduced in April, Deputy Maximiliano Ferraro proposed his bill that would also ban advertising and sports sponsorships, but with exceptions for within casinos and other gambling halls, lottery ticket sellers and on the platforms themselves.
Fernández’s bill would also require the registration and auditing of operators and measures to block illegal gambling sites. It also includes a clause to establish a prison sentence of one to four years for "anyone who facilitates access by minors under 18 years of age to online gambling and betting platforms".
As Fernández, Toniolli, and another deputy with a similar project Constanza Alonso, are all a part of the same political bloc in Congress, it is possible that they will unify to submit a single bill.
The series of proposed federal and province-level bills to limit gambling advertising or establish heightened responsible gaming requirements follow the launch of regulated online gambling operations in Argentina's largest provinces in recent years, and are in line with similar reactions to advertising among policymakers in various European countries.
In June, the government of the City of Buenos Aires said that it would look to combine 17 different bills addressing responsible gambling into one single proposal.
The city's lottery authority has also formally paused any applications for online gambling licences, as government officials cite concerns with what they call an epidemic of youth problem gambling.
