Online gaming, issue of debate at EY!11 Encuentro Yogonet

With the moderation of businessman Maximiliano de Muro, Andy Wasserman (Bwin.Party Latin America), Carlos Fonseca (Estudio Varela Fonseca Abogados), Víctor Farías (Pokerloco.com) and Gonzalo Masot (lawyer specialist in Internet gaming) talked about  the peculiarities of the Latin American market, its strengths and weaknesses.

“The online gaming contract is completely different from any other. It is difficult to see what has to be regulated, There are many elements and circumstances to consider”, commented Gonzalo Masot, who remarked that the current regulatory frame is very faint and limited, and the main thing is to consider the interests of all the parties involved. “The debate should be given on equal level”, he pointed.

Masot maintained that, in order to do something deep, it is necessary to set out certain key questions: what validity has in our country a company that operates with a foreign license, what validity has a national license, which is the contractual relationship between the player and the operating company, which is its relevance and if the state has interference. Besides, regulators should set out what tools do they have to control those companies that operate the activity in an illegal way.

In his turn, Carlos Fonseca enumerated ten key points to be considered by any investor interested in entering the online gaming industry: 

1- To study the National Constitution. Each country is a world. In the specific case of Argentina, there are 24 worlds.
2- To revise the Penal Code. It is not illegal to operate games in all the countries.
3- To verify the Civil Code. When one plays, one suscribes a betting contract. 
4- To check taxation.
5- To examine the prevention system of asset laundering.
6- To assure the intellectual property.
7- To check if there are special licenses and see which are the competent authorities.
8- To analyze protection codes for the consumer.
9- To see what means of payment are available.
10- To consider if there are any prohibitions in the advertising sphere.

Then, Andy Wasserman set his position on the future of online gaming in the region: “Latin America will never represent more than the 2% of the global market of the online gaming. Internet penetration is around 40%. It is just a business like any other”.

“We are not Europe. They have another penetration and life standards. They are regulating there after 10 years. Latin America represents an opportunity just for itself. The European continent now has other concerns. They are not thinking in investing here. We must regulate online gaming with Latin American operators which continue the European experience, but nothing more”, added the executive from Bwin.Party Latin America.

“The Latin American market has 15 cultures, ideologies and legislations. It is not easy. A lot of people believe that in several years it will be a boom. I do not see it that way. Trying to enter a Latin American market in a regulated way today means to generate a problem for the firm”, expressed Víctor Arias.

“Latin America has a lot to develop. If operators and countries gather in oroder to search for a regulation in common and facilitate foreign investment, it will be a positive boom and an avalanche of companies will want to enter the Latin American market”, indicated Arias, who remarked that, although improvements are needed, there has been a lot of progress on the matter.