After months of delays, the new Argentinian government has confirmed that Omar Galdurralde has been named as the Director-General of the Argentine Provinces Board for Lotteries and Casinos (IPLyC). This news was first reported last December.
Galdurralde had to wait for his new job. Following the election of Alberto Fernández, it was expected that his Justicialist Party would undertake sweeping reforms in several federal departments after they took office in December. This made the appointment of the new director-general to be less of a priority.
Galdurralde will replace Argentina PRO Party appointee Matías Lanusse, and comes with the impressive resume of a seasoned politician and business operative. He is the former Finance Director of ‘IOMA’, a medical assistance and workers program for BA provinces during the governorship of Javier Mouriño. He also has served as an advisor for state-owned Banco Provincia.
Joining Galdurralde will be Maria Agustina Ruax, who will serve as a technical and administrative director. She has experience as a legal liaison for the BA province’s Department of Public Coordination and Management. Carlos Gallo is expected to be named as Vice President of the IPLyC.
There will be some challenges ahead for Galdurralde in his new position. The IPLyC has failed to deliver on the launch of an online gaming platform, which was supposed to be instituted during the first quarter of 2020
Last May, the IPLyC released its criteria for operators to receive one of the seven Buenos Aires (BA) licenses in the province. All operators were required to submit an application by June 25, and it was expected that the online gambling framework would be in place shortly afterward, but it never came.
The Justicialist Party did not provide a great deal of information during the campaign regarding gambling reforms and the IPLyC had yet to publish the licensing criteria for international operators to compete in Buenos Aires online gambling tender process before the end of 2019.
These delays have led BA city gambling authority Loteria de la Ciudad (LOTBA) to publish their own online gambling requirements in February. They are hoping to have their gambling framework operational by the fourth quarter of this year.
