Mendoza awards online gambling licenses to five operating groups

On Tuesday, April 4, the government of the province of Mendoza, Argentina, awarded online betting and gambling services to five large business groups after receiving the approval of the State Attorney's Office, a step that was achieved last Friday, March 31.

The selected companies were the UTE Impresora Internacional de Valores SAIC (Ivisa) and Hotelera Emprender S.A.; Rush Street Interactive Latin America and Desarrollos Maipú S.A.; Boldt S.A. and Fuente Mayor S.A.; Traylon S.A. and Ondiss S.A. as well as Codere On Line Argentina S.A., as stated in article 2 of Resolution 192 of the Provincial Institute of Gaming and Casinos (IPJyC), which was published today in the Official Gazette.

Five other companies were left out of the bidding process: Nuevo Plaza Hotel Mendoza S.A.; Slots Machines S.A.; the temporary joint venture between Concesionaria de Entretenimientos y Turismo S.A. and Daruma SAM S.A.; the temporary joint venture between New Star with News Ads; and the temporary joint venture between Biyemas S.A. with Skill on Net S.A.U.; for "being inconvenient to the interests of the State, according to the report issued by the Pre-award Commission."

The licenses offer a permit for the "organization, development, exploitation, betting and commercialization of the online gaming activity, in its different modalities, through electronic, computerized, telematic or any other interactive means."

Article 4 of the regulation states that the contracts for the awarding of the service must be signed within the next five working days, while a term of 15 days -also working days- is established for the successful bidders to submit the contract performance guarantees.

Article 5 establishes that the agency presided by Ida López created a commission "for the reception of goods and services," which will be made up of four regular members (Lucas Díaz, Pablo Bogdanowsky, Alexia Boffa and Roberto Bortnic) and one substitute (Mauricio Pouget).

This commission will be responsible for "verifying whether or not the rendering of the service complies with the conditions set forth in the bidding terms and conditions, and shall draw up the corresponding Act of Commencement of Rendering, which shall also be signed by the successful bidder."

After this concession, the platforms will have to pay at least 6% of the amount resulting from the bets minus the prizes paid as royalties. In addition, they will have to pay the gross income. In exchange, they will be able to operate in the province for 10 years.