A bill in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires would require licensed online gambling platforms to enforce 60-minute session limits, cap logins at three per day, and run real-time facial recognition on key account actions. The proposal, introduced by Provincial Deputy Mayra Mendoza, targets player protection as the province’s regulated online market grows.
If passed, the rules would apply to the seven operators licensed by the Provincial Institute of Lotteries and Casinos (IPLyC): Bet365, Betano, Stake, Betsson, BetWarrior, Bplay, and Sports.bet. All seven would have to rebuild parts of their account and session infrastructure to comply.
Session time and daily login caps
The draft law would cap each gambling session at 60 minutes. Once a player reaches that limit, the platform would automatically close the session and block a new login for at least one hour.
Users could log in no more than three times in any 24-hour period. A player who exceeds that daily limit would be denied access until the following day and shown a responsible gambling message.
The bill also requires operators to display elapsed playing time and the total amount wagered on screen at all times, and to alert players when their behaviour suggests a risk of gambling-related harm. Those on-screen disclosures move responsible gambling data from optional account settings into the core betting interface.
Real-time facial recognition
The most technically demanding requirement is biometric. The bill would mandate real-time facial recognition for several actions on licensed sites: logging in, depositing funds, requesting withdrawals, and placing bets above a set threshold.
Lawmakers framed the checks as a way to confirm that the person using an account is the registered player, and to block unauthorised access, including access by minors. Buenos Aires already moved toward mandatory biometric identification for authorised online gambling and betting platforms, so the bill would harden an existing policy direction rather than open a new one.
For operators, the requirement raises questions the bill does not fully answer, including how facial data is stored, who audits the systems, and how checks perform at the frequency the law envisions. Repeated verification at login, deposit, withdrawal, and high-value bets would add friction to the exact moments where operators measure conversion.
Enforcement and oversight
Operators that fail to comply could face fines, temporary licence suspension, or the loss of their operating authority. The penalties give IPLyC’s licensing regime direct leverage over conduct on the platforms it authorises.
The bill also creates a Permanent Working and Monitoring Committee inside the Buenos Aires Chamber of Deputies to oversee enforcement and recommend future amendments. That body would sit under the Committee on Gambling, Lottery, and Problem Gambling Prevention, chaired by Micaela Olivetto.
A wider regional pattern
The proposal fits a broader tightening of online gambling rules across Latin America. In Brazil, the regulated market’s first year has been shadowed by political pushback, including President Lula’s call for a ban on online betting platforms and a Workers’ Party bill to ban fixed-odds betting outright. Buenos Aires is taking a different route, layering strict conduct rules onto licensed operators rather than moving to prohibit them.
Other jurisdictions have used supply-side limits instead, such as New Zealand’s cap of 15 online casino licences. The Buenos Aires bill works on the demand side, restricting how long and how often licensed players can gamble.
The measure still has to clear the provincial legislature, and the operators it would bind, several of them among the largest names in the region, have not publicly responded. Whether the 60-minute cap and mandatory biometrics survive the committee stage in their current form will show how far Buenos Aires is willing to push licensed operators before the rules take effect.
Source: Provincial Institute of Lotteries and Casinos (IPLyC)
