TL;DR:Â
- Regulatory scope: The regulation directly includes virtual asset service providers, banking entities, and fintech platforms.Â
- Criminal penalties: The draft contemplates prison sentences ranging from two to four years for those who financially assist illegal operators.Â
- Previous blocks: Argentine judicial authorities already implemented a nationwide access restriction against the Polymarket platform in March 2026.
The Executive Branch of Argentina presented the Bill for the Prevention of Gambling Addiction and Regulation of Online Gambling to the National Congress. The official announcement was published last Tuesday by the National Ministry of Health. This government measure seeks to block banks and crypto firms from participating in the payment infrastructure that supports betting platforms operating without a valid license within the national territory.
New compliance obligations and financial restrictionsÂ
The core of the legislative document establishes that financial entities, payment service processors, and virtual asset providers cannot offer their services to unauthorized gambling operators. According to information provided by the Ministry of Health, the measure grants powers to supervisory bodies to disable money flows toward these portals.
Crypto companies based in the country could be forced to strengthen their technical monitoring systems both inside and outside the blockchain (on-chain and off-chain). Preliminary industry reports suggest that exchanges and fiat conversion gateways (fiat on-ramps) must mandatorily identify digital wallets and commercial flows linked to illegal gambling.
The project proposes structural reforms to the Criminal Code to punish with prison those who act as logistical or technological intermediaries for clandestine betting platforms.
The stipulated penalties could directly affect global intermediaries operating in the region. Industry sources reported that local betting portals used payment ramps like MoonPay to facilitate the entry of capital. The aforementioned payment firm did not issue formal statements regarding its intermediation role after being consulted by the press before the official publication of the bill.
State coordination and the Polymarket precedentÂ
To guarantee the effective fulfillment of these provisions, the proposal promotes a joint inspection strategy among multiple agencies of the Argentine State. The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), the National Securities Commission (CNV), the National Communications Ente (ENACOM), and NIC Argentina will centralize their databases to disrupt the technological access of infringing platforms.
This regulatory tightening follows a trend of previous restrictive actions executed by local regulatory entities. In March 2026, a local court ordered the nationwide blocking of Polymarket, the decentralized prediction market based on blockchain technology. That legal action was driven by the Lottery of the City of Buenos Aires, under the argument that the portal operated event-based betting without the relevant permits.
Regulations on similar prediction markets continue to expand in different regions globally. Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi currently face rigorous reviews in multiple jurisdictions due to legal debates over whether trading event contracts equates to unauthorized gambling.
The legislative text will continue its course in the committees of the Chamber of Deputies for its technical evaluation before being debated on the floor.
