A man has been sentenced to three years in prison on a conditional basis for illegal gambling, marking the first criminal conviction for the offense in Entre Ríos.
The convicted man is 37-year-old Luis Daniel Acuña from Santa Elena, and the sentence was handed down by a court in La Paz, Entre Ríos province.
The ruling, signed by Judge Ramón A. Lell, found Acuña materially and criminally responsible for violating Article 301 bis of Argentina's Penal Code.
According to the decision, he had organized and operated a system for capturing bets for online casinos without the authorizations required to conduct gambling activities in the province. A third party worked with the operation as a cashier handling bets and payments.
The case was initiated following a complaint filed by the legal department of the Instituto de Ayuda Financiera a la Acción Social (IAFAS), the authority responsible for gambling regulation in Entre Ríos.
According to IAFAS, the complaint was based on a report published by a local newspaper, in which Acuña gave an extensive interview and spontaneously described how his operation worked.
The court considered Acuña's own account of the operation particularly relevant. According to the ruling, he described how third parties acting as "cashiers" collected payments and served as a link between bettors and the digital platforms where the gambling took place.
The court said his statements demonstrated the existence of an organization designed to systematically operate illegal gambling.
The statements were subsequently corroborated through investigative measures, including a search of Acuña's home. The case had already involved raids in Santa Elena and La Paz in July 2024, when investigators seized a mobile phone, a notebook, handwritten notes and a USB drive as part of the investigation into the alleged illegal online casino operation.
The three-year sentence was imposed on a conditional basis, meaning that Acuña was not sentenced to serve the prison term immediately, subject to the conditions imposed by the court.
Article 301 bis of Argentina's Penal Code provides for three to six years in prison for operating or organizing unauthorized gambling activities
