TLDR
- San Juan’s gambling regulator, the Caja de Acción Social (CAS), is close to finalizing rules for five online gambling licenses.
- The plan aims to improve oversight of internet gaming, fight illegal gambling and increase fiscal accountability.
- San Juan is working with Mendoza and San Luis on a regional self-exclusion agreement.
- Players who self-exclude in one province would be blocked online and at land-based venues in all three.
- The provinces would link their self-exclusion databases under data protection rules.
The province of San Juan in Argentina is getting closer to finalizing its rules for online gambling. The new framework would allow the province’s Caja de Acción Social (CAS) to offer five online gambling licenses.
CAS president Juan Pablo Medina said the framework is close to being completed. The project is meant to improve how internet gaming is regulated in the province.
Officials also want to fight illegal gambling. The plan is designed to increase fiscal accountability as well.
Three Provinces Plan a Shared Self-Exclusion System
Alongside the licensing process, San Juan is working with its neighbors Mendoza and San Luis. The three provinces are drawing up a regional agreement on self-exclusion.
Self-exclusion lets people choose to ban themselves from gambling. Under the proposal, a player who opts out in one of the three provinces would also be blocked in the other two.
“For the first time in the country, we will ensure that the self-exclusion tool has a real and coordinated interprovincial reach,” Medina said.
He added that if a person decides to self-exclude in San Juan, “that protection will not end at our provincial borders; it will immediately extend to Mendoza and San Luis.”
The agreement targets a gap in Argentina’s current system. Self-exclusion programs are usually limited to one jurisdiction, so a banned player could move to a nearby province and start betting there.
How the Shared Database Would Work
Argentina’s gambling rules are decentralized. Each province can create its own laws for land-based and online gambling.
The City of Buenos Aires and the province of Buenos Aires each have their own regulators. This setup has led to the country’s gambling rules being described as “balkanized.”
A key part of the deal would be linking the self-exclusion databases of San Juan, Mendoza and San Luis. Information on excluded players would be shared among the three provinces under confidentiality and personal data protection rules.
The combined database would also apply to licensed online gambling sites. If any of the three provinces approves an operator, people on the shared register would not be able to open an account or place a bet.
The ban would cover physical gambling venues too. Licensed casinos, slot machine halls and bingo halls in the three provinces would be expected to block entry to anyone on the unified register.
The move follows growing attention from Argentine officials to responsible gambling. Authorities have also been looking for ways to regulate the growth of online gambling.
San Juan and its neighbors want a system that offers more oversight through coordinated self-exclusion. At the same time, the plan would allow for legal online gambling.
For now, CAS says the final round of regulations for the five online licenses is nearly complete. Once finished, the rules would allow the agency to begin offering the licenses.
