The Chamber of Official Lottery Agents and Related Bonaerense shared a series of considerations regarding the project.
Argentina.- The Chamber of Official Lottery Agents and Related Bonaerense (CAOLAB) sent a letter to the provincial Senate Chamber, where it shared a series of considerations regarding the comprehensive gambling legislation project being discussed in the Industry and Mining Committee of said parliamentary body.
A few weeks ago, a meeting of the members of the Industry and Mining Committee took place in the Antonio Cafiero Hall of the Senate of the Province of Buenos Aires, where a project for a “Comprehensive Gambling Law in the Bonaerense area” was analyzed. During the parliamentary meeting, where CAOLAB also participated, the main guidelines of a bill presented by Senator Carlos Kikuchi were analyzed.
In the note, signed by the president of CAOLAB, Marcelo Iglesias, the entity indicated that, after “an exhaustive analysis” of the project, they propose some considerations and modifications “with the sole objective of defending the interests of our representatives, the official agents of Lottery Quiniela and Prode, but without losing sight of the interests of the Province and the need to prevent the advancement of gambling addiction in general and in minors in particular”.
Furthermore, CAOLAB recalled that the sales network “is on the verge of collapse”, with real revenue losses close to 60 percent, and attached a report prepared by the chamber that shows the evolution of gambling in recent years and the detail of profitability losses. Given this situation, the entity proposed that in addition to including VLT machines as a gaming offer from the agencies, the network should participate in online gaming, which is currently exploited by seven licenses.
On the other hand, they highlighted: “We perfectly understand that to control gambling addiction and money laundering it is necessary for the gambler to register on the gaming platforms, but it is also important to mention that lottery agents have guaranteed up to now the control of gamblers in physical gaming”.
They indicated that it is in their interest to include as an offer in the agencies, "virtual bets through VLTs, or any other instrument, with control by the official lottery agent, as has been done routinely with excellent results, since gambling addiction in the quiniela is practically nil, and money laundering is practically impossible with the current control mechanisms established by the Provincial Institute of Lotteries”.
At the end of the letter, CAOLAB referred to the prohibition that virtual betting platforms have to capture the lottery games that Quiniela and Prode agencies possess. Currently, this prohibition is established in Annex I of the regulatory decree 181/2019 of law 15079. “It is essential, to bring peace of mind to our sales network, that this prohibition be included in this project, to be established by Law instead of a regulatory decree”, they concluded.
During the parliamentary meeting, the main guidelines of the bill that proposes to advance with a comprehensive gambling regulation in the province of Buenos Aires in order to guarantee the protection of public order, eradicate illegal gambling, protect the rights of minors, and safeguard the rights of the participants of the games were analyzed.
Additionally, the text proposes the implementation of an adequate tax regime that allows collecting funds to be allocated to priority areas such as health, education, social assistance, and sports.
