Legal situation of online gaming in Latin America

It is of real interest from the governments of several Latin American countries to regularize the current legal void in which online betting activities are immersed.

It is well known that technology improves faster and faster and it plays against the governments of the continent, which cannot keep up with it due to its high level of bureaucracy.

The pioneer in the continent has been Argentina. Although it does not have a federal regulation, but in a few cases, at a regional level, it is the only country that has been able to take actions accordingly, with a certain level of success, although in the short-term.

Big online betting companies have arrived in Latin America in recent years, seeking to agree with the government in order to obtain a legal license to operate at a national level, and they have bumped into intricate labyrinths of regulatory frames on online gaming withouth logic.

The latest news that shook up the market in 2012 was Bwin withdrawal from Argentina.

In Mexico, progress has been made towards online gaming regulation. By the end of 2008, the Mexican congress approved a draft to ban Internet betting, however there are no important novelties nowadays. Although it is said that they could follow the regulatory model applied in Spain, it is not a priority so far, specially due to the political changes that have recently took place in that country.

On the other hand, the new regulatory entity for gaming in Colombia, has publicly declared that in 2013, measures will be adopted in roder to grant online gaming licenses.

In the rest of the countries, no progress has been made, so everything continues on a grey zone. As we all know, in Central America there are jurisdictions that allow online gaming licenses, such as Costa Rica, Panama or Netherlands Antilles, to name a few. However, attractive markets for the operators (both offline and online) are still Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, among others.

Many foreign operators are already operating in those countries, and payment solutions are more creative each time. It is a very interesting but immature market at the same time,  in which land-based operators must start working right now in the investigation and preparation for an eventual regularization for the market in which they are operating.

In future articles we will go into different issues in depth: details on the regulatory frames per country, existing payment methods, operators with presence in Latin America, which is the situation of giant Brazil, which are the oportunities and strenghts of land-based operators in this new scenario, how should them prepare to compete on an equal level, and many more.

(*) Businessman involved in online gaming since 2003. Online gaming consultant in Latin America and international conference speaker. You may contact him clicking here