The Playing Field: South America
They say that no news is good news and that just may be the case in South
America where the online casino gambling industry is concerned. Several years
ago there was a big push in the gambling market toward the emerging Spanish
market in this region of the world. Although Latin America was easily accessible
to the internet gambling companies because of proximity to the US the market has
been largely ignored because of the regulatory ambiguities all over South
America as well as the cash-poor nature of many of these countries. Several
major gambling groups investigated the Latin American market but yet never made
very strong moves to challenge the norms and expand into the region. Mostly
there were timid attempts to both launch and advertise new online casinos within
the market but the gaming sites immediately backed down when a few major nations
challenged their rights to operate.
According to the vast majority of the ambiguous legislation in South America,
however, the online casinos are a valid market and an extension of land gambling
laws. This has not gone over well in Argentina and other nations and legal/court
battles between a prominent internet gambling group and court system in
Argentina has served as a warning to other online casinos are weary of
prematurely entering this potentially lucrative market until new legislation
comes into effect.
Interestingly though is the fact that South and Central America have developed
entirely different regulations where the online casino and gambling industries
are concerned. South America is much more hesitant to allow a lot of foreign
influenced gambling into the country and several prominent South American
governments are ignoring the issue rather than facing it head-on and making some
firm choices. The government’s tactic means that South American online gambling
is in a ambiguous place with very little growth. |