Online Gambling Laws and Regulation in Latin America

When it comes to gambling in general, Latin America has a rich history regarding such practices. Nowadays, we are able to observe growth in online gambling platforms in every region of the world. Naturally, with such rapid growth, laws regarding online gambling aren’t being updated at the same pace. This ultimately leads all the gamblers out there with a question mark when it comes to the legality of practicing online gambling. All that being said, what are the current online gambling laws and regulations in Latin America?

Well, the answer to this question isn’t all that simple, as it varies depending on the country. Different countries enforce different policies, but all in all, online gambling doesn’t have a strong legislative basis in Latin America. In most cases, laws aren’t all that clears, and this leaves room for interpretation. So, let’s go through different countries to see what the current situation is with online gambling laws.

Brazil

Brazil’s gambling legislature is incredibly outdated when compared to America, for instance. When it comes to on-site gambling, the Criminal Convention Act formed in 1941 has deemed such activities illegal. This basically means that practicing any game of chance is prosecutable. Here’s the problem, this Act is incredibly old. This means that it doesn’t in any way describe online gambling. Ultimately, using judi slot and similar foreign gambling sites is legal as it doesn’t violate the before-mentioned CCA. On the other hand, if someone runs an online gambling site that is Brazil-based, well, that is illegal.

Mexico

Like all the countries listed in this article, online gambling is pretty much in the gray area in Mexico as well. The latest laws regarding gambling laws were amended back in 2004. When this was done, online gambling was not addressed in any way. Ultimately, to this day, there are no legislations specifying the legality of online gambling. As expected, this has led to the fact that online gambling is thriving in Mexico. In fact, there is data to support that Mexico has the fastest-growing online gambling market in entire Latin America. The annual numbers regarding this practice go over 2 billion dollars.

What you should know though, that while Mexican gambling sites do exist in abundance, Mexican citizens aren’t able to use them. This is why Mexican citizens mostly use different foreign sites for online gambling, as it is legal to do so. In the near future though, it is to be expected that this will change.

Argentina

Argentina is arguably a Latin American country with the most complex gambling laws. There have been a lot of attempts by the Argentine government to outlaw gambling of any sort. The problem is a huge percentage of the population gambles anyway. This makes it quite hard to truly enforce such laws. This contradiction in laws and practice can easily be seen in the fact that Argentina has over 80 casinos. Even though the number of casinos is so high, people prefer to gamble online even more. All in all, online gambling is regulated on a provincial level rather than on the federal level.

Finally, as you’ve been able to see, Latin America is a huge part of the gray area when it comes to online gambling. This means that the probability is high that you can indulge in online gambling without the fear of being prosecuted. Additionally, this also means that you can easily run into some shady sites. The moral of the story – be careful about the legitimacy of the online gambling sites, and make sure that you regularly check for updates regarding gambling laws!

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