Juan Manuel Valdes, a deputy of the Union for the Homeland (UP for its acronym in Spanish) party, has presented an initiative that aims to review and amend the Gambling Law of the City of Buenos Aires.
The bill seeks to tighten the mechanisms for the identification of users and thus prevent minors from registering in online gambling sites. Thus, if this bill is approved, any website, mobile application, or other digital media that allows betting with real or virtual money through a gambling platform will have to validate the identity of its users through the use of biometric data.
As reported by Parlamentario.com, the text proposes that these sites must set up an authentication process that determines the unique biological characteristics of each person such as fingerprints, facial recognition, iris recognition, or any other similar feature, to ensure the authentic identity of the user.
Furthermore, the bill indicates that "in the event of not being able to verify the user's identity or if it is detected that the user is a minor, the user's access to the platform must be immediately prevented," as reported by the above-mentioned media.
Congressman Valdés explained that with the implementation of these verification systems, it will be possible to prevent minors from accessing online gambling. "It is important to prevent early exposure to gambling from generating adverse effects on the mental and emotional development of minors", he said.
Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires
He concluded by noting that gambling addiction can generate mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems, and has a negative financial impact, both for the child or adolescent and for their families.
The current Gambling Law of the City of Buenos Aires, dated December 14, 2000, defines a gambler as any person with the capacity to establish a contract, over 18 years of age, who enters into a gambling contract with the enforcement authority of the present law or with whoever it authorizes.
Recently, the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires agreed, in its last session, to give priority and preferential treatment in the next sessions to the 19 bills that address the prevention of problem gambling and pathological gambling, with emphasis on minors and teenagers.
