Financial Ministry details improvements to Brazilian gambling legislation at ICE VOX

José Francisco Manssur, special advisor to the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, is taking part this week in the ICE VOX congress, promoted by the ICE London World Regulatory Briefing (WRB) 2024, in London.

This Monday he was a speaker on the panel "Order and Progress, analyzing the new regulatory environment for gaming in Brazil". 
Manssur spoke about recent advances in the regulation of the betting sector in the country, highlighting the enactment of Law No. 14.790/2023 at the end of last year, which promoted the effective regulation of betting and online gaming. 
"At ICE London 2024, Brazil has a betting law and is working on regulating this legislation," said Manssur.

The MF's special advisor pointed out that progress on the regulation is already underway, with the drafting of a set of 12 ordinances on the subject over the course of the year. One of the ordinances will deal with certification laboratories, which will be responsible for analyzing the compliance of platforms, software and hardware used by the sector.

Another ordinance will focus on advertising and publicity actions specific to the sector. There will also be an ordinance specifying the opening and closing dates of the first window for market agents to submit requests for authorization.

Manssur stressed that the goal is to establish a healthy market for all agents. From the bettors' point of view, the intention is to avoid compulsive gambling and exposing the public to fraud. For this reason, he stressed, there will be a strong monitoring system, which will generate benefits for companies, the government and gamblers.

ICE VOX brings together legislators, regulators and the industry to debate the main regulatory, legal and compliance developments in gaming. The World Regulatory Briefing promotes the communication of global changes in gaming, regulatory updates, new markets and the evolution of consumer protection.

Improvements

The lottery modality called "fixed-odds betting" should have been regulated by the end of 2020 (two years after the publication of Law No. 13.756/2018, which legalized this modality), which was not fulfilled by the previous government. In other words, the "bets" market had been legitimized in the country since 2018, but since then the sector has operated without specific inspection and taxation rules; leaving bettors and sports activities exposed to the possibility of scams and fraud. With the enactment of Law No. 14.790/2023, a gap in the lack of regulation that had remained open for almost half a decade was filled.

Another step forward was the creation of the Secretariat for Prizes and Betting (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance (MF), as established by Decree No. 11,907 at the end of January. The secretariat was created to add to the MF's structure and improve government actions, with special attention to the process of regulating the fixed-odds betting market, which includes sports betting and online games, and also to fulfill the Ministry of Finance's legal attributions regarding lotteries and commercial promotions.