The market
Argentina has no national online gambling law. Regulation sits with each of the 24 jurisdictions, the 23 provinces plus the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, each with its own regulator, tax, licence term and identity rules. According to ALEA, as of May 2025 20 of the 24 jurisdictions had online gambling regulated and operational. That makes Argentina the most complex regulatory map in Latin America.
The two jurisdictions that matter most are CABA, regulated by LOTBA, and Provincia de Buenos Aires, regulated by IPLyC. Buenos Aires province alone concentrates roughly half of the country’s online play, and combined with CABA the two exceed 45% of the national total; reporting also suggests up to 80% of bets in the province still run on unregistered platforms. CABA runs an open model with no cap on licences and no local-partner requirement, and had 11 authorised platforms operating under LOTBA in 2026; Buenos Aires province granted only seven licences with a closed cap and a local-partner model. Play is football-led with sports betting prominent, and the legal market competes against a persistent grey field.
Regulation and licensing
There is no single licence. An operator must license separately in each province it wants to serve, and requirements diverge sharply. LOTBA (CABA) grants “Agencia de Juego en Línea” permits for five years, extendable, with no cap on the number and open to foreign operators without a local partner, and now requires RENAPER-linked biometric identity verification. IPLyC (Buenos Aires province) works under Ley 15.079/2019, grants 15-year licences, caps the number at seven and requires a local partner and an economic guarantee. Geolocation to confirm the player’s jurisdiction is a technical licence condition, not optional.
At national level there is no licensing power, but there is a federal tax touchpoint: an indirect tax on online bets under Ley 27.346, administered through a percepción regime that ARCA updated via Resolución General 5791/2025, including rules on the register of foreign operators and reduced-rate conditions.
Marketing and player rules
The one federal move of substance is advertising. A national prohibition on online-gambling advertising on social media and digital platforms has been in force since late 2024. In November 2025 Resolución 446/2025 made responsible-gambling warnings mandatory across all sector advertising, and Resolución 271/2026 (RESOL-2026-271-APN-SICYPYME#MEC), published in the Boletín Oficial on 6 August 2026 and signed by Secretary Pablo Agustín Lavigne, revised the warning wording, keeping the mandatory legend “el jugar compulsivamente es perjudicial para la salud” plus “+18” and letting provincial or CABA warnings satisfy the national requirement. Age limit is 18. Identity checks in CABA run through RENAPER. Deposit and loss limits, self-exclusion and player-winnings tax are set at provincial level and vary.
What this means for your plan
Argentina suits an operator that wants one or two provinces done properly, not a national footprint. I would treat CABA as the entry point because LOTBA is open, uncapped and does not force a local partner, and Buenos Aires province only if a 15-year horizon and a local partner make sense. The trap is assuming a single Argentine licence exists; it does not, and the cost multiplies per province. Watch the federal advertising regime, because it already shapes acquisition more than any licence term does.
Sources
- Yogonet, en qué provincias está regulado el juego online (ALEA data to May 2025), checked 5 September 2026
- Revista Casino Perú, Resolución 271/2026 on advertising warnings, checked 5 September 2026
- Contadores en Red, ARCA Resolución General 5791/2025, impuesto a las apuestas online (Ley 27.346), checked 5 September 2026