What is Mercado Pago and why is Argentina's Association of State Lotteries scrutinising it?
Mercado Pago is the digital wallet within the Mercado Libre ecosystem, the company founded by Marcos Galperin that started out selling goods online and has since become something akin to a bank for millions of Argentines. Mercado Pago’s “Fixture 2026”, a World Cup prediction pool feature, surpassed 2.3 million users within days and amassed more than 60 million completed World Cup predictions, according to several local media reports. The initiative caught the attention of Argentina’s Association of State Lotteries, ALEA, which raised concerns about certain aspects of the feature and demanded changes.
ALEA: the body that intervened
The Argentine Association of State Lotteries, Asociación de Loterías Estatales de Argentina (ALEA), is the organisation that brings together provincial lottery authorities and casinos across the country. Its formal mission is to coordinate gambling policy. In this case, its practical role was to do what no one else had done: closely examine what “Fixture 2026” actually was.
The conclusions were not favourable to Mercado Pago. Ida Magdalena López, President of ALEA and Casinos de Mendoza, confirmed that discussions took place with Mercado Libre representatives to analyse how the product operated. Following these exchanges, the platform introduced modifications to reinforce its status as free entertainment. However, ALEA had already issued a formal document addressed to Mercado Libre, stating that “Torneos de Amigos”(“Friends’ Tournament”), according to ALEA, features game mechanics that could fall under Article 301 bis of the Criminal Code, which establishes prison sentences for organising gambling without authorisation.
2016 Argentine law: 3 to 6 years in prison for unlicensed gambling
The Argentine Congress passed legislation in 2016 that imposes prison sentences of three to six years on anyone organising gambling without a state licence. The law makes no distinction between a land-based casino and a mobile application.
López stated to local media that regulators from several jurisdictions reviewed Mercado Pago’s game rules and identified elements of concern. Based on this, ALEA engaged with the company to assess how the product functioned and to communicate the objections raised by provincial regulators.
Money that is not a bet but rewards like one
Mercado Pago launched “Fixture 2026” with a feature called “Torneo con amigos”, friends’ tournament, which, in its original form, allowed each participant to allocate up to 70,000 Argentine pesos (approximately US$48) to the pool. With 50 participants at the maximum, the total pot reached 3,500,000 pesos (approximately US$2,400), split as follows: 70 per cent to the winner, 20 per cent to second place and 10 per cent to third. The company maintained that it did not handle that money and that its role was limited to providing the technology.
In mid-June 2026, ALEA sent a formal notice to Mercado Libre warning that this format displayed characteristics typical of a betting intermediary, licensed or not, under the terms of Article 301 bis of the Argentine Penal Code, and opened talks with the company to address the matter.
Following those discussions, Mercado Pago modified the feature. The points, which in the original version had a direct monetary equivalent, became symbolic tokens with no value assigned by the platform. Under the revised format, each group decides among its members what the accumulated points represent or what they may be used for, without any involvement from the platform in financial arrangements.
Mercado Pago confirmed the modifications by June 19, 2026. ALEA nevertheless maintains a broader objection: even if the company does not charge an explicit commission, every peso circulating between users within the app remains inside Mercado Pago’s financial ecosystem, increasing transaction volumes and keeping users active on the platform.
Argentine Congress and the online gambling gap
Efforts to comprehensively regulate online betting in the Argentine Congress have yet to progress. Self-exclusion for problem gamblers, the only existing protection mechanism, applies exclusively to the regulated market and excludes everything operating through digital wallets, everything labelled as entertainment, and everything that offers rewards in dollars without being classified as betting. The gap between what the law covers and what users actually engage with appears to be an issue requiring deeper examination.
This article was first published on the Spanish SiGMA News page on 19 June 2026.
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