River Plate and 19 other sports institutions from the City of Buenos Aires joined a “Network for the Prevention of Addictions in Clubs”which aims to prevent and raise awareness among children and adolescents about problematic consumption, mainly childhood gambling addiction.
This is an initiative that is being carried out by the Buenos Aires Government, which has already announced measures to prevent this problem that has been growing in Argentina. The meeting took place at the Núñez club and was led by the mayor Jorge MacriHe was accompanied by the Minister of Human Development and Habitat, Gabriel Mraida; the Secretary of Sports, Fabian Turnes; and the president of the City Lottery, Jesus Acevedo.
The Club Addiction Prevention Network consists of two phases: one of management and diagnosis, with meetings with managers and support teams to outline actions to address problematic consumer situations; and another developmentwith training and talks for teenagers.
This prevention network will offer workshops on the management and expression of emotions, psychosocial skills, problematic consumption (prevention and early detection) and the use of free time and play. The aim is for both coaches and teams to be an active part of early detection and prevention of all types of addictions, such as substance abuse or problematic use of technology. In this context, an agreement was signed with the clubs and with three organisations: the Casa de la Cultura, the Hogar de Cristo and Deporte Solidario.
“This is a more silent, more complex, newer addiction, which often does not manifest itself as a sports performance problem. That is one of the traps of betting, which is to talk about gambling, when in reality it is gambling.”Jorge Macri explained.
Finally, he indicated: “This issue intersects with a lot of larger complexities, such as advertising, economics, the fact that legal gambling today is part of what sells, promotes and sustains sport around the world.”
A club that also showed commitment to this issue is Vélez Sarsfield. The current board of directors, upon taking office in December, canceled a contract with an online betting house that was worth US$400 million. In addition, there is special training in lower divisions and their school on sports betting, among other addictions.
These measures are in line with other measures taken by the Buenos Aires government at a general level, especially due to the increase in child gambling addiction. A report states that one in two parents are concerned about their children being able to gamble online. In turn, research by the City Lottery (LOTBA) indicates that 98.6% of children have some connection with technology, while 52% of parents believe that their children make an exclusive use of screens and devices. .
Among the measures taken by the City to attack childhood gambling, the closure of registration for new licenses for betting operators and the suspension of all agreements with potential operators – currently there are 11 – stand out.
In addition to these measures, the Buenos Aires Government made agreements with META, NIC.AR, ENACOM, Mercado Libre and Rapipago to eliminate and block content that promotes illegal gambling. Currently, 715 social media profiles and advertisements and 12 websites in the .AR domain have been blocked. In turn, the removal of 9 Mercado Libre publications was requested and 9 formal letters were sent to influencers who promote unlicensed sites.
Finally, it was reported that the Ministry of Health will open a specialized group device at the Álvarez Hospital to care for minors with a possible diagnosis of gambling addiction and another to care for families.
