Legislation
Argentina – New bill in Argentina looks at player protection
By Phil - 30 May 2018
Mayra Mendoza, a national deputy for the Frente para la Victoria Party (FpV) has, presented a bill that aims to prevent and treat those suffering from gambling addiction and aims to reduce problem gambling throughout Argentina.
The new bill would strengthen care centres for gamblers, restricts opening hours, the sale of alcohol, and the installation of ATMs. The project also includes the creation of the National Self-Exclusion Registry whereby players will be able to exclude themselves from gambling venues. Other play protection measures include stipulations that all gambling halls must display signs warning of the potential harmful effects of compulsive gambling. These warnings will also need to display a toll-free telephone line that provides advice for family members and friends who are affected by someone’s gambling behaviour.
This is the third time that Mendoza has tried to push for major changes to Argentina’s gambling laws having first put forward Law N ° 26.934, “Comprehensive Plan for the Approach of Problematic Consumption” in 2014 and again in 2016. The law would also create prevention centres throughout Argentina, which would travel throughout the country and offer assistance to those with other addictions as well.
Introducing the bill once again, Deputy Mendoza explained that the purpose of the project was to make the population more aware of the dangers of gambling.
“There are people who lost everything because of gaming, from a house to their family. The uncontrollable impulse of the subject to play, persists and progresses in intensity and urgency, consuming more and more time, energy and emotional and material resources available to that person. Finally, it invades, undermines and often destroys everything that is significant in the life of the person suffering from pathological gambling. A society that does not face its problems is a disintegrated society,” she said.
