Argentina’s Deputy Chamber approved a bill on Wednesday aimed at preventing online gambling addictions despite a lack of support from the ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA), and its allies in the PRO and the UCR. The bill, which has to go through the Senate to become a law, would address an ongoing nationwide youth gambling crisis.

PRO and LLA deputies refused to sit in their places to avoid establishing a quorum in an explicit bid to stop the session. The bill was approved by 139 affirmative votes. 36 deputies voted against the bill, and 59 abstained. 

The proposed bill forbids online betting advertising and sponsorship, even on professional football shirts, and reinforces the platforms’ required biometric controls to prevent children and teenagers from accessing them. If approved in the Senate, it would kickstart a comprehensive and interdisciplinary plan to prevent virtual gambling addiction in children and adolescents.

A recent study by the city’s ombudsman office found that a quarter of Buenos Aires high schoolers have gambled online, and 3% struggle to stop.

Two different bills were debated on the house floor during Wednesday’s special session — one was the “majority” opinion signed two weeks ago by center-right, center-left, and left blocs Unión por la Patria (UxP), Encuentro Federal, Coalición Cívia, and FIT. The other “minority” opinion was endorsed by PRO, LLA, and the UCR.

The main difference between both texts was that the majority opinion was more strict in its prohibition of advertising — it forbids the promotion and sponsorship of online gambling, of any kind and in every media, including endorsements by online influencers, celebrities, sportspeople, sports institutions, stadiums’ billboards, and others. It would only allow advertising inside casinos, bingos, racetracks, betting shops, or lottery agencies. 

The minority opinion was not as specific. The team that wrote the majority bill, which eventually passed, did not want to leave room for interpretation as the national government is responsible for implementing it. The national Childhood Secretary, Juan Bautista Ordoñez, was the online gambling platform Codere’s manager.

During the debate in commissions, which took place on November 13, UCR deputy Maximiliano Ferraro accused PRO lawmaker Silvia Giudici of being a “lobbyist of gambling companies” after she filed her party’s bill.

The debate

During the session, PRO National Deputy Hernán Lombardi said his bloc would abstain because it would not legislate “against the freedom of adults” to gamble responsibly. “We do not want to vote for something that does not convince us just to be politically correct,” he said. LLA deputy Lilia Lemoine said gambling addictions are “a responsibility of the family rather than of the state.” “The state is intervening in the personal decisions of individual persons,” she added, saying that she is not bothered by online betting platforms making a “lot of money.” “What’s next, banning social media?” she asked. UxP deputy Natalia Zaracho told the story of a “16-year-old boy from a poor neighborhood who is AR$ 8 million in debt.” 

“He started playing in school to be able to buy sneakers, clothes, certain things that this society demands he must have to belong,” Zaracho said. “And he started first by gambling what he had, then by gambling some of his family’s things, and then taken in by loansharks”, she added.

Ariel Parajón, a political scientist and specialist in drug policy who helped write the bill, told the Herald he was “satisfied,” although society has to discuss other related issues.

“The bill is specifically about gambling, online gambling, and leaves out, for example, the world of video games or social media as a consumption habit,” he said. 

“It is a first step to begin to understand the way we have to relate to these digital objects, and as with substance use, what role they play in the life of a person — we do not need to criminalize or stigmatize, but to accompany, listen and regulate.”