Argentina: General Pico approves program to prevent youth online betting
The municipal initiative aims to curb underage gambling after teachers reported students placing online bets during school hours.
The City Council of General Pico in La Pampa province, Argentina, has unanimously approved the creation of a municipal program to raise awareness and prevent minors and adolescents from participating in online betting, responding to reports of students gambling during school hours.
The Municipal Program for Awareness and Prevention of Online Betting Games for Youth and Adolescents was approved during the 20th ordinary annual session after being initially presented in April 2024. The initiative received support from all political blocs following consultations with the executive branch and modifications to the original proposal.
Councilor Eugenia Forte, who presented the project, said: “We have been talking for quite some time with teachers who brought us the problem of adolescents who bet directly at school. It was time for these things to happen because the reality is that even though they have to be over 18 to access them, they have access anyway.
“We have experiences of kids who are already in this problem and it is quite complex, especially because it is an addiction that is very difficult to detect.”
The program will include signage, dissemination of best practices and workshops with parents and adolescents in schools and municipal youth participation spaces. Forte emphasized that gambling addiction is particularly challenging to identify in adolescents because it lacks visible symptoms compared to other addictions.
Forte said: “In gambling addiction, detection becomes quite difficult and arrives at a point when one is already immersed in the addiction. It is welcome that the municipality can also work on this. This is about a local instance where work can be done in different areas of the municipality.”
The approval comes nearly two years after concerns were first raised by educators about the prevalence of online gambling among students in General Pico.
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