A Buenos Aires judge has ordered Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to shut down the bwin.com.ar site, following charges that the company has violated local laws by advertising its website extensively in the Argentine media without possessing the requisite licence. The lead prosecutor in the case has said that investigations may also be opened into two companies that have been providing payments solutions for Bwin’s Argentine subsidiary.

Gibraltar-based Victor Chandler becomes the first international betting operator licensed in soccer-mad South American country - will others follow?

Boasting the third largest Spanish-speaking gaming market in the world, Argentina is regarded as a key market for international gambling operators seeking to break into South America.

Buenos Aires judges have ordered two of Victor Chandler International’s Argentine-facing websites to be blocked in Argentina’s capital city because the company does not possess a local gambling licence. Victor Chandler has become the second operator to be barred in Buenos Aires, after a judge demanded the closure of the Bwin.com.ar site in March.

A municipal judge in Buenos Aires has ordered the 888.com website to be made inaccessible to city residents on the grounds that the web offering violates local gambling laws. The ruling follows similar moves against both Bwin's and Victor Chandler’s Argentine-facing sites last year.

The future of online gaming in Argentina remains mired in uncertainty as the local company Formoapuestas recently became the third operator to face a prohibition order this year, following the fates of Victor Chandler and Bwin. But while all three parties are taking court action to restore their services, two Argentine provinces are also seeking to outlaw online gambling via concrete legislative action.

Argentine media groups risk facing criminal sanctions if they continue to carry advertisements for the offshore gambling websites that are “proliferating” in the country, according to a warning from Argentina’s main association of national and provincial gambling regulators.

Despite the undoubted potential of the Brazilian market, only lottery games and race horse betting are legal in Brazil. However, this framework could change in the near future as a bill that will legalize bingo and electronic bingo machines will be voted on soon.

The chief executive of Gaming VC believes the acquisition of South American-facing site Betboo gives the company access to the “enormous potential” of a region which is less crowded than the European betting and gaming marketplace.

Remote gambling operators, until now more interested in Asian opportunities, have so far only taken tentative steps into Latin America but according to Fernando Ors of Codere, technological improvements and the rapid evolution of the Mexican market are beginning to put regulation on the region’s political agenda.