Argentinean congresswoman presents bill to restrict online gambling advertising
Argentine Congresswoman Marcela Campagnoli (CC-ARI) presented a bill to restrict online gambling advertising. The initiative also includes prohibiting the payment of bets by debit card "to avoid the accumulation of gambling debts."
The bill aims to "prevent online or virtual pathological gambling in the Argentine Republic and to avoid the harmful consequences at individual, family and social level that it causes", according to the document published by El Parlamentario.
Additionally, it states that online or virtual gambling advertising will be limited to television, radio, and media content platforms, live or recorded, that can be viewed on computers or cell phones through the internet, web pages, social networks, and applications or apps, including online press, exclusively to the time slot from one to five in the morning.
"The contents shall be neutral and may not appeal or incite directly to the user.
The project proposes responsible online gaming that complies with certain requirements such as "providing the user with accurate and complete information regarding the type of game, rules, probability of winning, and other information related to the operation of the game; establishing an alert system on the time and money bet to indicate to the bettor when he/she is close to reaching the limits established in his/her user account; having a procedure to verify the identity and age of the bettor and a channel of choice for the player to verify his/her identity through a double factor or the technology that may replace it in the future".
"Compulsive gambling is one of the addictions that has increased the most in young people, adults, and the most vulnerable sectors after the pandemic," Campagnoli noted in her draft bill.
"I believe that countries should try to accompany technological advances in the gaming industry to prevent the damage caused by compulsive gambling, and the authorities should legislate to promote the safety of players and their families," the text further reads.
"In short, we seek to restrict the advertising of online gambling in the communications media and virtual platforms, in order to have a regulation that avoids the development of such pathology, something like the regulation that restricted cigarette advertising," the congresswoman concluded.