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Argentina – Transfer of Buenos Aires gaming to city control underway

By - 27 February 2017

Vice President of Argentina Gabriela Michetti, who is standing in for President Macri while he is on a state visit to Spain, signed a decree on Thursday that ratifies the agreement between the government and the government of the City of Buenos Aires for the transfer of control of gaming to the City.

A special committee will have 30 working days to define how the racetrack in Palermo, the floating casinos moored to the harbour in Puerto Madero as well as the 1200 lottery agencies will be transferred to city control.

According to local news sources the deadlines for the transfer will begin in April with the transfer of the racetrack in downtown Buenos Aires set to take place first, followed by the transfer of lottery agencies and then finally the floating casinos. The racetrack will have 60 days to sign the agreement with the newly established body which oversees gaming in the city the Lotería de la Ciudad (The City Lottery). Lottery agents will have 120 days and the floating casinos will have 180 days.

The new agreement means that the National Lottery will hand as much as $850m pesos in gaming tax revenue generated in Buenos Aires during 2016 to the city. Up until now gaming revenue has been divided equally between the National Lottery, the Ministry for National Social Development and the city government. From now on 100 per cent of all gaming revenue will go to the city. The city could raise as much as $2bn a year. 70 per cent of this amount will be earmarked for housing projects while 30 per cent will be used to run the newly created City Lottery.

Last year the government of Buenos Aires city announced that for the first time it would have total control over gaming within its territory. The decision came after a long struggle over the five bingo halls operating in the city limits, which are now closed, and is part of a much larger policy as the city government has tried to wrest control of gaming in the city from The Argentine National Lottery (Lotería Nacional) and force the racino located under the racetrack to pay an estimated $4bn pesos in back taxes. The decree was signed in June by President Mauricio Macri and transfers gaming to the administration of city mayor’s office and was later ratified by the legislative branch of the city government.

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