ATM's could be banned in casinos and bingo halls in Buenos Aires

The initiative of the opposition senator proposes that there should be no ATMs, machines to carry out transactions with foreign currency or loans and electronic devices to send money with credit and/or debit cards in places intended for gambling. in person.

“Considering the immediate availability of money as a concrete action that encourages compulsive gambling, we propose that the prohibition be through a law, with concrete and temporary effect, so that the executive branch can comply with its effective implementation within a period of two months,” Reich indicated.

In addition to this prohibition, the initiative of the legislator from Tres de Febrero aims for the Government of the province of Buenos Aires to remove the ATMs already installed and in operation in casinos, bingo halls and other recreational places.

In its foundations, Reich mentions that in 2016, under the management of the then governor María Eugenia Vidal, the Lottery and Casinos Institute decided to remove all ATMs from casinos within the framework of the Compulsive Gambling Prevention and Assistance Program. , and announced sanctions for those who do not comply with this measure.

However, in 2022, under the management of Axel Kicillof, the Lottery and Casinos Institute reversed this measure, so ATMs reappeared in these betting places. Now, two years later, Reich asks that the Buenos Aires government reverse course and return to the original policy.

It is worth mentioning that this Reich project comes in the middle of the war that the provincial Executive is waging against the scourge of gambling addiction, more precisely childhood gambling. Last Monday, the general director of Culture and Education, Alberto Sileoni, celebrated the formation of the interministerial table against child gambling and detailed the actions that the portfolio is carrying out in Buenos Aires schools, one of the territories where online betting runs as wildfire.

The member of Axel Kicillof's Cabinet explained that in the Buenos Aires schools they are working to advance in the blocking of access to online betting domains and in a financial education program together with Banco Provincia, at the same time that they have already distributed a guidance guide and put A plan is underway with curricular content aimed at preventing addictions in children.