The deputies want to move forward with the legislation with a report this November 7th.
Argentina.- The Commission for the Prevention of Addictions and Control of Drug Trafficking of the Chamber of Deputies will meet again this Thursday, November 7 to continue with the work of unifying the bill projects related to cyber gambling and online betting. The last session was held in August.
According to the media outlet Parlamentario, the goal of this new session is to reach a consensus and issue a report that will initiate the discussion in the full Chamber of Deputies. Over the course of the year, four informational meetings were held, the last of which was on August 13, in which several committees of the Lower House participated to listen to experts who presented on the effects and risks of digital betting.
Despite the more than two-month hiatus, efforts continued, as indicated by Mónica Frade, president of the commission, who acknowledged that reaching consensus was challenging. The deputy highlighted that the intention is to have a unified report from the five involved committees: Social Action and Public Health; Communications and Informatics; Penal Legislation; Families, Childhood and Youth; and the Commission for the Prevention of Addictions, chaired by Frade. The goal is to have the report ready before the end of the year, although if the half-sanction is achieved, even better; if not, work will continue next year, before moving to the Senate.
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The formal work in the committees began in May, when Frade announced the start of the informational meetings to address the issues of online gambling, highlighting its negative impact on families and adolescents. The first meeting took place on May 28, where the legislators presented their proposals to prevent and treat gambling addiction.
One of the main obstacles to advancing the process was the administrative complexity and changes in the projects. To streamline the work, joint meetings with other committees were decided upon, which allowed for smoother progress. Starting June 11, the meetings turned into plenaries, and the committees of Social Action and Public Health, Communications and Informatics, and Penal Legislation joined to continue with the process. The last of these plenary sessions was held on August 13, with the participation also of the Committee on Families, Childhood and Youth.
The projects include from the restriction or prohibition of advertisements, the regulation of their contents to prevent cultural and sports figures from being propagators, implementation of responsible usage patterns by the platforms with time and money spent alerts, restriction of payment methods, and biometric identification systems to prevent access by minors. Sanctions are also planned, ranging from website blocks to criminal consequences.
Frade acknowledged that the project, which has Maximiliano Ferraro as its main author and is signed by the rest of the members of the Civic Coalition, "is the most complete".
