Overview
- On Thursday Jonatan Gómez told MargaTV he is a recovering gambling addict who owes about $50,000 to a clandestine betting platform and that the crisis has “destroyed” his family and put his career at risk.
- Gómez says he was coerced in October 2025 into signing four promissory notes worth $505,000; those notes were later used in civil suits that prompted preventive embargoes on his house in Funes, a Rosario apartment, a vehicle and bank accounts.
- Fiscal Aquiles Balbis formally dismissed Gómez’s criminal extortion complaint for lack of evidence and concluded the player coordinated the signing, a finding Gómez disputes publicly.
- Parts of the criminal file were referred to prosecutor Luisina Paponi to decide whether to open an inquiry into possible false testimony by Gómez, leaving the criminal track shifted but not fully closed.
- The case raises broader questions about clandestine betting operations that offer credit lines and produce enforceable documents, and it joins other football cases that show how online gambling can create deep financial and personal harm for players.