Is Gambling Legal in Argentina? Online and Land-Based Guide

Published by Filip RadulovicReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Argentina has no single national gambling law. Under the federal Constitution, the provinces keep every power not delegated to the federal government, and they use it to run their own lotteries, license casinos and, increasingly, license online gambling. The result is a patchwork of 24 jurisdictions: 23 provinces plus the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Each has its own regulator, licensing model and register of authorised sites. National law adds three layers on top: a Criminal Code offence for running gambling without authorisation, a federal tax on online bets, and a pending debate in Congress on online gambling, minors and advertising. This guide sets out how that system works and what it means for operators and players.

Key points

Gambling is regulated by the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires under Article 121 of the Constitution. There is no national licence for online gambling.
Article 301 bis of the Criminal Code, added by Law 27,346 in December 2016, punishes operating games of chance without the authorisation of the competent authority with three to six years’ imprisonment.
By July 2025, 20 of the 24 jurisdictions had regulated online gambling, according to a Yogonet survey. Licensed sites generally use the .bet.ar domain.
A federal indirect tax on online bets applies at rates that depend on where and how the operator is registered.
National bills on minors, advertising and illegal online gambling were before the Senate in 2026 but had not been enacted when this guide was reviewed. The bill passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 2024 risks lapsing if the Senate does not act on it by the end of the 2026 ordinary sessions.

Last reviewed: 21 October 2026.

Historical development

Illustrated Argentina landmarks with reference books and documents for the history of gambling regulations in argentina section

Argentina’s gambling sector grew up around provincial lotteries and casinos, alongside a national lottery. The national lottery company, Lotería Nacional Sociedad del Estado, ran draw games such as Loto and La Quiniela for decades. In 2016 the federal government began transferring those games to the City of Buenos Aires’ own lottery, LOTBA, and the handover took effect in July 2017. On 2 February 2018 Decree 95/2018 dissolved Lotería Nacional and abolished Prode, the national football pools game, as Perfil reported at the time. Since then, every lawful lottery in Argentina has been a provincial or city lottery.

Online gambling followed the same provincial pattern. The Province of Buenos Aires added an online gambling title to Law 15,079, its fiscal law for 2019, and regulated it by Decree 181/2019. In 2020 its regulator awarded seven online licences, according to the Library of the Chilean National Congress (2025) and El Recreativo. The City of Buenos Aires built a parallel system through LOTBA. Mendoza passed Law 9,267 in 2020, and other provinces followed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic (Yogonet; Diario de Cuyo).

Legal framework

The constitutional split

Article 121 of the National Constitution provides that “the provinces retain all power not delegated by this Constitution to the federal government”. Gambling is not among the delegated powers, so each province, and the City of Buenos Aires, decides whether to allow a given form of gambling, who may operate it and on what terms. Congress, however, has the power under Article 75(12) to enact the Criminal Code. That is why the main national rule on gambling is a criminal offence rather than a licensing statute.

Article 301 bis of the Criminal Code

Law 27,346 of 22 December 2016 added Article 301 bis to the Criminal Code. It punishes with three to six years’ imprisonment anyone who operates, administers or organises games of chance without the authorisation of the competent authority. Commentators note that the offence covers remote betting through technological platforms as well as physical premises (Ariza Clerici and Ruíz, Infobae, 2024). Because the “competent authority” is provincial, an operator licensed in one province is not thereby authorised to take bets from residents of another. Provincial regulators such as Mendoza’s Instituto Provincial de Juegos y Casinos rely on Article 301 bis when they describe unlicensed online gambling as a crime (IPJyC Mendoza).

Regulators and licensing models

Each jurisdiction has its own lottery institute or agency. Three examples show the range of models:

Province of Buenos Aires. The Instituto Provincial de Lotería y Casinos (IPLyC) licenses online operators under Title VIII of Law 15,079 and Decree 181/2019. The first tender, in 2020, awarded seven licences, each lasting 15 years with no renewal. Applicants had to be domiciled in the province, and foreign groups needed a local partner holding at least 15% (BCN, 2025). According to El Recreativo, each licensee had to pay a fixed fee of ARS 65 million.
City of Buenos Aires. LOTBA (Lotería de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires) is both the city’s lottery and its gambling regulator. Its official portal, Juego Seguro y Legal, lists the online operators authorised in the city together with the resolution granting each authorisation. Eleven operators were listed when the portal was consulted for this review. LOTBA also requires licensed sites to use the .bet.ar domain (Beccar Varela, 2024). The city and the province are separate jurisdictions, and a licence from one does not cover the other.
Mendoza. Law 9,267 of 2020 allows up to seven online licences, awarded by public tender and supervised by the IPJyC. Licensees must apply cybersecurity, age-verification and responsible-gambling measures (Diario de Cuyo). The institute publishes a register of authorised platforms.

By July 2025, according to Yogonet, online gambling was regulated in 20 jurisdictions: Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires City, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquén, Río Negro, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe and Tucumán. San Juan had approved a regulation that was not yet operational (Law 2724-P of December 2024, which provides for up to five licences by public tender; in October 2026 the provincial Caja de Acción Social was still finalising the rules for the tender, according to Focus Gaming News), and Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tierra del Fuego had none. These counts come from trade press and change as provinces legislate, so the relevant provincial regulator is the authoritative source.

Online gambling and enforcement

Where a province has regulated online gambling, licensed operators may typically offer casino games, sports betting and poker to people located in that province, subject to geolocation and identity checks. No national body licenses online gambling for the whole country. Offering online gambling in a jurisdiction without that jurisdiction’s authorisation falls within Article 301 bis.

Enforcement is mostly provincial and administrative. In 2024, LOTBA reported that it had blocked 715 social-media profiles and advertisements and 12 .ar websites, and sent cease-and-desist letters to influencers promoting illegal gambling. It also blocked 772 gambling URLs, legal and illegal, on public-school and city Wi-Fi networks. It worked with Meta, NIC Argentina, the communications regulator ENACOM and payment companies (Beccar Varela, 2024). Mendoza advises players to check three things: a .bet.ar domain, the regulator’s credentials in the site footer, and its official register (IPJyC). Mendoza also warns about unlicensed sites that use intermediaries known as cajeros (cashiers) to handle money.

Position of players

Article 301 bis is aimed at those who operate, administer or organise unauthorised gambling, not at people who place bets. None of the national sources reviewed for this guide identifies a national offence for players, and the government’s 2026 bill, as summarised by Rosario3, does not propose penalties for bettors. Provincial misdemeanour codes, which this review did not examine province by province, may contain their own rules. Players are barred from licensed platforms if they are under 18. Regulators warn that unlicensed sites offer no identity checks, no age verification and no guarantee that winnings will be paid (IPJyC).

Taxation

Taxes apply at both federal and provincial level.

Federal tax on online bets. Law 27,346, as amended by Law 27,591 in 2020 and regulated by Decree 293/2022, created an indirect tax on bets and games of chance offered online, collected by the federal tax agency ARCA (formerly AFIP). According to ARCA’s summary table, the rate depends on the operator. Operators based in Argentina and enrolled in the online betting control register pay 5%, or 2.5% if they meet investment and employment conditions, and unregistered domestic operators pay 7.5%. Bets with foreign operators through local payment intermediaries are taxed at 10%, rising to 15% where the operator is in a low- or no-tax jurisdiction or is not registered. In the first seven months of 2026 the tax raised about ARS 89.6 billion, compared with about ARS 48.1 billion in the same period of 2025 (La Nación, August 2026).
Provincial taxes and fees. Provinces levy gross-income tax and licence fees. In the Province of Buenos Aires, licensees pay provincial gross-income tax, a tax on gross gaming profits and an administrative fee to the IPLyC (BCN, 2025).
Prize tax. Lottery prizes are subject to a national prize tax withheld at 31% on 90% of the prize, giving an effective rate of 27.9% (Infobae, September 2026). The sources reviewed do not settle how this applies to online casino winnings, so players with significant winnings should seek tax advice.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Argentina has no national self-exclusion register. Self-exclusion, a voluntary request to be barred from gambling venues or sites, is organised by each jurisdiction. In the Province of Buenos Aires, the Programme for the Prevention and Treatment of Compulsive Gambling was created in 2005 by the lottery institute and the provincial health ministry. It runs a free helpline on 0800-444-4000 and ten treatment centres across the province, and it offers voluntary self-exclusion lasting two years. In the City of Buenos Aires, LOTBA’s Juego Seguro y Legal portal offers a self-exclusion facility (“Autoexcluite”) and a problem-gambling helpline on 0800-666-6006. In October 2026 San Juan, Mendoza and San Luis were reported to be negotiating a shared regional self-exclusion register (Focus Gaming News). Our responsible gambling guide lists further general resources.

Gambling among young people is a growing policy concern. The government’s 2026 bill cites a survey by Sedronar, the national drugs and addictions agency, according to which more than one in four secondary-school students had gambled for money in the previous year, mostly online (Chequeado).

Recent and upcoming developments

2024 Chamber of Deputies bill. On 27 November 2024 the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill on gambling addiction and online betting by 139 votes to 36, with 59 abstentions (Chamber of Deputies). It would ban online gambling advertising, bar under-18s from platforms and restrict welcome bonuses and influencer promotion. Senate committees debated it alongside other bills during 2025 (Senate, October 2025), but by mid-October 2026 they had not issued a report on it and it had not been passed into law. Unless the Senate acts before ordinary sessions end in November 2026, it is expected to lose parliamentary status and would have to start again (El Argentino Diario, October 2026).
2026 government bill. In May 2026 the national government sent the Senate its own 21-article bill. It proposes three to six years’ imprisonment for unauthorised operators and two to four years for those who provide them with financial, technological or advertising services. It would also give enforcement roles to ENACOM (content blocking), the Central Bank (payments), the securities regulator CNV (crypto-asset providers) and NIC Argentina (domains). It would ban advertising of unlicensed platforms, while licensed operators could still advertise, provided their advertising does not target minors or link betting to economic success, social recognition, alcohol or tobacco (Rosario3). Unlike the 2024 bill, it leaves regulation of licensed operators, including any national self-exclusion register, to the provinces (Chequeado; Rosario3). Supporters of the 2024 text argue that a national advertising ban is needed. The government argues that licensing standards belong to the provinces. As of the latest reports reviewed, neither bill had become law.
Province of Buenos Aires bill. In October 2026 committees of the provincial Chamber of Deputies began considering a bill from the governing bloc to limit online betting advertising, tighten controls on licensed platforms and require contributions to a mental-health and gambling-prevention fund. It had not been voted on when this guide was reviewed (Parlamentario, October 2026).
Tax collection. ARCA updated the collection regime for the online betting tax in November 2025 with new registration and control rules (La Nación).

Sources and further reading

Argentine Republic, Constitución de la Nación Argentina (InfoLEG, accessed 5 October 2026).
Instituto Provincial de Juegos y Casinos de Mendoza, Juego ilegal (accessed 21 October 2026).
Instituto Provincial de Juegos y Casinos de Mendoza, Plataformas autorizadas (accessed 5 October 2026).
Lotería de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (LOTBA), Juego Seguro y Legal – agencias de juego en línea (accessed 21 October 2026).
Instituto Provincial de Lotería y Casinos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Programa de Prevención y Asistencia al Juego Compulsivo (accessed 21 October 2026).
ARCA (formerly AFIP), Impuesto indirecto sobre apuestas y juegos online – cuadro resumen (accessed 21 October 2026).
Argentine Republic, Decreto 293/2022 – Impuesto indirecto sobre apuestas online (Boletín Oficial, 2 June 2022).
Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación, Obtuvo media sanción un proyecto de prevención de ludopatía y regulación de las ciberapuestas (2024).
Honorable Senado de la Nación, Se reanudó el tratamiento sobre prevención de ludopatía, la regulación de los juegos de azar y las apuestas en línea (2025).
Holz, M. and Morales, P., Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile, Regulación de los juegos de azar en línea: los casos de Colombia, Buenos Aires, España, Italia y Reino Unido (2025).
Chequeado, Ludopatía: el Gobierno presentó un proyecto propio y reavivó el debate por las apuestas online en menores (2026).
Rosario3, Apuestas online y ludopatía: el Gobierno mandó al Senado un proyecto con nuevas penas y controles (2026).
Beccar Varela, LOTBA adopta medidas contra sitios no autorizados e influencers que promueven su uso (2024).
Ariza Clerici, R. and Ruíz, M., Infobae, Juego ilegal en línea: de la penalización a la ciberludopatía infantil (2024).
Yogonet, Argentina: ¿en qué provincias está regulado el juego online? (2025).
El Recreativo, El Instituto de Lotería y Casinos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires otorgó siete licencias de juego online (2020).
Diario de Cuyo, Casinos online bajo control: el modelo mendocino frente al vacío legal en otras provincias (accessed 5 October 2026).
La Nación, La recaudación del impuesto a las apuestas online escaló casi un 30% en julio por el efecto Mundial (2026).
Infobae, Un apostador ganó más de $9.000 millones en el Quini 6: cuánto va a tener que pagar en impuestos (2026).
El Argentino Diario, Ludopatía: la Iglesia le pidió a Villarruel que el Senado trate la ley antes de que pierda estado (2026).
Focus Gaming News, San Juan prepara cinco licencias de juego online y un registro regional de autoexclusión (2026).
Parlamentario, Apuestan en línea: sin actividades en los recintos gana atención las acciones en comisión de Diputados (2026).
Perfil, Por decreto, el Gobierno disolvió la Lotería Nacional y cerró el Prode (2018).

Casino listings for players in Argentina

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in Argentina or in your province. Online gambling is lawful only with an operator authorised by the regulator of the jurisdiction where you are located. Readers should check the relevant register, such as LOTBA’s Juego Seguro y Legal list for the City of Buenos Aires or the IPJyC register for Mendoza, and look for a .bet.ar domain.