Argentinean Mobile Gambling in Trouble After iPhone and BlackBerry Ban

The government of Argentina has officially banned all import and retail sales of a number of popular smartphones including Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. The news came as a shock to clients of mobile casinos in Argentina hoping to enjoy gambling on those devices.

The ban is valid for all foreign-made smartphones, however Apple and RIM are expected to suffer the most. The two companies are among the very few who didn’t deem building factories in the country necessary. Boy, were they wrong!

The other major manufacturers including Samsung, Nokia, LG and Motorola have considered the Argentinean market important and have set up production facilities here. Naturally, these companies are out of the scope of the recent ban.

With lightning-fast development of mobile technologies mobile and online casinos in Argentina are gaining in popularity rapidly. It will be a major upset for both Apple and RIM to not be able to lay their hands on a considerable mobile gambling market in Argentina.

The only option for the two companies is to build phone factories in Argentina. Argentina gambling news reports that RIM is already looking to find a partner for such a project. Apple’s plans in this direction are still a mystery.

The latest ban is temporary, and is a part of the Argentinean government plan to tackle economic crisis, however there’s no word on how long the ban will be in place. According to some sources Apple and RIM combined hold around sixty percent of the Argentinean smartphone market. This makes the ban quite a considerable blow to their dominant market share ambitions.