Salta court convicts 11 over illegal online casino network flagged by regulator ENREJA
A judge in Salta, Argentina, has approved abbreviated-trial agreements convicting 11 people for running and taking part in an unlicensed online casino network that operated under the names BET91, Celuapuestas and Red Las Únicas between 2022 and 2024. Four received three-year suspended sentences and seven received two-year suspended sentences, the provincial prosecutor's office said on October 28. The case against two other defendants continues.
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Overview
- Judge José Riera of Salta's Colegio de Jueces approved full abbreviated-trial agreements for 11 defendants in a case over an unauthorised online casino network, the Salta Public Prosecutor's Office said on October 28, 2026.
- Four defendants were sentenced as co-perpetrators to three years in prison, suspended. Seven were sentenced as secondary participants to two years, suspended.
- Prosecutors said the network ran from 2022 to 2024 under the names BET91, Celuapuestas and Red Las Únicas, using "cashiers" who recruited players and sold virtual chips.
- The investigation began with a November 2023 complaint by Salta's gambling regulator, ENREJA. The case against two remaining defendants moves to the control-of-accusation stage.
The sentences
The agreements were negotiated by interim prosecutor Ana Inés Salinas Odorisio of the Complex Economic Crimes Unit (UDEC) and approved by Judge José Riera of the Seventh Nomination Guarantees Court.
María Julieta Furquin, Cintia Verónica Gualtiere, Roberto Miguel San Martín and Tomás Nahuel San Martín received three-year suspended sentences as co-perpetrators. Mariela Andrea Mollo, Walter Marcelo Lobo, Andrea Celeste Verón, Juan José Carrasco, Lucas Nicolás Galván, Adolfo Ignacio Rodríguez and Constanza María Di Leandro received two-year suspended sentences as secondary participants.
The proceedings continue against Leonardo Piaggio Olivera and Facundo Villalba, whose cases now go to the control-of-accusation stage. No hearing date has been published.
How the network operated
According to the prosecutor's office, the organisation had a hierarchy of organisers and administrators above a layer of cashiers. Cashiers recruited players, sold them virtual chips to bet on the platforms and passed the money up the chain. The network promoted itself on social media and messaging apps and held both in-person and online meetings.
With court authorisation, a digital undercover agent joined the group's WhatsApp chats, where investigators found operating instructions, advertising material and sales balances. The agent also attended Google Meet sessions in which incentives were offered to cashiers. Prosecutors also relied on raids, seized documents and devices, phone taps and analysis of bank records.
From ENREJA complaint to sentence
The case started on November 3, 2023, when a legal adviser to the Ente Regulador del Juego de Azar (ENREJA), Salta's gambling regulator, reported that a woman was publicly advertising a network recruiting bettors and sellers for the unlicensed BET91, Celuapuestas and Red Las Únicas sites. The complaint also cited the absence of any of the province's problem gambling prevention measures.
On November 12, 2024, investigators carried out 19 raids in the city of Salta and in Buenos Aires, Tucumán and Mar del Plata. Prosecutors froze 253 bank accounts linked to the suspects, asked for the sites to be blocked in the province's schools and sought travel bans for eight alleged leaders, after phone taps over 15 days and 60 days of undercover online work.
In June 2025, the prosecutor asked for 13 people to stand trial. Eleven of them have now been convicted.
Argentine provinces each license and police their own gambling markets. See also Buenos Aires Province: seven gambling licences and an illegal market and Entre Ríos casino ban for child support debtors.
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Andrea Rivera explores the evolving world of iGaming through the companies trying new things and the markets taking shape around them. An editor at AskSpinner News, Andrea combines research with storytelling, bringing information and perspective to industry analysis without losing the story that makes it worth reading.
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