The Buenos Aires City Legislature has approved a law that bans people listed as delinquent on child support payments from opening or holding accounts on licensed online gambling platforms.
The bill, authored by legislator Leandro Santoro of Fuerza por Buenos Aires, passed with 43 votes in favor and 14 against. The entire 14-seat bloc of La Libertad Avanza, the official party, voted against the measure.
The law adds article 17 bis to City Law 269, which governs the Registro Público de Alimentantes Morosos, the city's registry of delinquent child support debtors.
It bans anyone on the registry from opening or maintaining active accounts, or making deposits, bets or withdrawals, on any online gambling platform licensed in the city, covering games of chance, skill games and any product run by Lotería de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (LOTBA).
Operators must run an automated real-time check before onboarding each user, preventing accounts from being opened for anyone listed on the registry. If an existing customer is later identified as a registered debtor, the operator must immediately suspend the account and notify both the registry and the judicial authority overseeing the case.
The law also requires the city executive branch and LOTBA to develop the verification systems, which may only confirm a user's registry status, while prohibiting the storage or commercial use of the data collected or its use for profiling under the city's Data Protection Law.
The city's gaming regulator will enforce the rules and can sanction noncompliant operators under existing disciplinary procedures tied to gaming licenses and concession terms.
After the vote, Santoro criticized La Libertad Avanza for opposing the measure, questioning whether the issue could be treated as a matter between private parties in which the state has no role. He argued that the city should not remain indifferent to debtors who spend money on online gambling while failing to meet their child support obligations.
He added: "I cannot believe how anyone could think it reasonable for a father to put money into online betting instead of taking responsibility for raising his child." He also said that treating child support as "help" for the mother was a mistake, arguing that it is a parent's responsibility.
Santoro cited data from the city's statistics institute showing the monthly cost of raising a child in Buenos Aires and said that only one in four mothers raising children alone receive child support on time, more than 56% receive no support and 76% of those who do get it irregularly.
Other Argentinian provinces have introduced similar restrictions. San Juan, Salta and Buenos Aires Province prohibit registered child support debtors from entering casinos and other gambling venues, while Jujuy is implementing a similar restriction through an inter-institutional agreement.
San Luis and Mendoza have also considered comparable measures, but their proposals have not become fully effective laws. Buenos Aires City has now gone further by targeting online gambling, requiring operators to check the debtor registry and suspend existing accounts.
The Czech Republic has also expanded its gambling exclusion register under new welfare rules. Since August, recipients of the living allowance component of the country's new consolidated welfare benefit, along with members of their households, are automatically banned from licensed gambling while they receive the benefit.
The measure increased the number of people on the exclusion register from 236,228 in July to 299,362.
The Buenos Aires City executive branch has 30 days from the law's publication in the Official Gazette to issue implementing regulations
