Cordoba, Argentina, will allow online gambling.

Cordoba, Argentina, is going to start letting people gamble online.

The province of Cordoba in Argentina is almost ready to start online casinos. They could start to show up as early as Thursday, unless some lawmakers finally succeed in stopping the plan.

Cordoba, Argentina, is home to the Bicentennial Civic Center.

The Bicentennial Civic Center in Cordoba, Argentina, as seen from the air. Cordoba, the capital city of the province of Cordoba, could start to offer online gaming options on Thursday. (Image: El Comercio Peru)

The same-named capital city of Cordoba moved quickly to allow online gambling. But the winners of the concessions were not announced until the last minute. Cordoba Lottery is in charge of the new market, which was supposed to start last week but needed more time.

Since then, the winners have been announced by the state-backed lottery operator and regulator, and the online gaming space should start to take shape on Thursday. As the operators try to get in front, there will be a scramble.

Argentina Welcomes Online Gaming

At the start of the bidding process, ten businesses were interested in getting into the business. On these platforms, you’ll be able to play online lotteries, casino games, bet on sports, and more.

Bingo Avellaneda and Betway were the first to leave when their plans were turned down by the Cordoba Lottery. The Victoria Casino in Entre Ros, which was backed by Betsson, and others moved on to the next round.

Rush Street Interactive also made the cut, thanks to a partnership with a local company called Atlántica de Juegos. Another is CET, which is based in Cordoba and already runs a business with slot machines and casinos. It joined forces with Daruma Sam, a company that only offers sports betting in Paraguay, where it is based.

Binbaires and Ondiss, two Argentinian companies, teamed up with Intralot and a local businessman with ties to controversial figures in Argentina. Guillermo Mart, who owns the Hippodrome of Palermo, is also a part of that group.

The Spanish company Codere is coming through the local brand Iberargen. SG Digital also made it through and is ready to land in Cordoba through Boldt, which runs casinos in Argentina.

Cuyo, a gaming company in Argentina, is one of only two companies that didn’t ask a foreign gaming company for help. Slots Group is the other one.

Cordoba Lottery could turn on the new gaming segment tomorrow by flipping a switch. Cordoba residents will still have to wait before they can legally gamble online. The operators will need at least a few days, if not a few weeks, to get their systems set up and approved.

Trying to stop progress at the last minute

It hasn’t been easy for Cordoba online gaming to get this far. In June of this year, 11 provincial politicians tried to stop progress by asking a judge to step in and stop the government from working.

The judge turned down their request, saying that they didn’t have a legal reason to complain. The lawmakers filed an appeal and are still trying to stop it.

The judge made it clear that if the Municipality of Cordoba wants to stop online gaming and sports betting, the mayor of Cordoba, Martn Llaryora, would have to start the process. The argument that provincial law bans online gambling didn’t hold up when it was looked at more closely, so the court has no legal reason to step in.

As the launch date got closer, those who wanted to stop online gaming made one last attempt. Several people wrote letters to Mayor Llaryora asking him to explain what he plans to do to help. He hasn’t replied yet, so it looks like he’s not going to do anything.