Neuquén Governor Rolando Figueroa has signed Decree 37/26, updating the legal framework of the Instituto Provincial de Juegos de Azar del Neuquén (IJAN) and making its authority over online gambling and internet-based betting explicit. Local reporting says the measure was published in the provincial Official Gazette and amends the regulatory decree tied to Law 2751, which created the IJAN.
The stated rationale is to “update” rules in response to “substantial transformations” in the technological and commercial environment of gambling, and to equip the regulator with “precise and explicit” tools to exercise police powers across all modalities—including those carried out through digital platforms, online betting, and emerging technologies.
In practical terms, the new wording confirms the IJAN is empowered to authorize, regulate, organize, administer, exploit, audit, and control gambling activities, explicitly covering online gambling in all its forms, sports betting (retail and online), and “any platform, digital system or technological support” used to capture or process wagers.
The decree also reinforces the regulator’s toolkit: it can issue technical, operational, fiscal and control rules, approve specific regulations for different formats, and apply enforcement powers over these modalities.
IJAN sources told local media that the province was already exercising oversight in practice, but that Decree 37/26 formalizes and clarifies that authority. The agency also noted that existing concessions may operate digitally, and that in Neuquén’s capital there are two online platforms linked to a casino in the city’s west, with additional sites operating elsewhere in the province with less visibility.
