The Argentine Advertising Council has launched an awareness campaign titled "Parece un juego, pero es una trampa" (It looks like a game, but it's a trap).
The campaign aimed at highlighting the risks betting platforms pose to adolescents and young people and focuses on how welcome bonuses and gamified features function as hooks drawing young users toward financial and emotional harm.
The initiative comes as Argentina's National Government formally assigned responsibility for preventing and treating problem gambling to the Ministry of Health.
With coordinated outreach with streamers and influencers to help spread the message within digital spaces young audiences engage with daily, the campaign's video contrasts adolescents' everyday routines with the gradual isolation caused by compulsive gambling.
Closing with the line: "A welcome bonus from a betting house is the goodbye to what you have and to those you love most," the campaign mentions a statistic that 1 in 8 young online bettors in Argentina is already in debt.
The initiative comes as betting advertising has become deeply embedded in sports broadcasts, jersey sponsorships and social media content in Argentina, raising concerns about gambling risk among younger audiences.
By using the same influencer-driven and AI-assisted tactics the betting industry itself relies on, the campaign aims to reframe the promise of "easy money" or "fast cash" as a warning about the potential loss of relationships, time and stability.
Recently, the Buenos Aires City Legislature approved a law barring people delinquent on child support payments from opening or holding accounts on licensed online gambling platforms, passing 43-14 with La Libertad Avanza's full bloc voting against it.
Salta's Chamber of Deputies has debated a bill that would ban the display, promotion or advertising of casinos, betting shops and online betting platforms on property and vehicles
