Brazilian Prize and Betting Secretariat hears suggestions on Regulatory Agenda 2025-2026

Among the concerns raised by the more than 200 participants were points such as responsible gambling and the fight against illegality.

At the end of the hearing, the MF's Secretary for Prizes and Gambling, Regis Dudena, commented that the participants' comments were very much in line with the SPA's own ideas, including “some suggestions for new things, new solutions to problems identified”. ‘I'm very happy to see that people have come, expressed themselves and brought these contributions. I'm sure that they will be further complemented by the written submissions that are open in our consultation,’ he said.

Among the 45 comments made by the participants at the hearing, the concerns related to responsible gambling, the fight against illegality and concerns about other regulated areas stood out. Dudena emphasised that the SPA has three areas of competence: lotteries, in all their lottery forms; commercial promotions; and the collection of popular savings.

In this first year, according to the secretary, the SPA has tried to take care of the various sectors, but above all the most recent: the fixed-odds betting sector as a lottery modality, which still lacked special attention from the state. The aim, in this case, was to correct ‘the country's historical mistake of having legalised an activity without knowing what the relevant issues are and what the regulatory problems are; without thinking about and putting solutions in place, or testing these solutions and then going back to the beginning.’

Final report

Regis Dudena explained that this Friday's oral comments and those submitted in writing will be internalised so that the final report of the public consultation can be released on 4 April, with targets for the last three quarters of 2025 and all quarters of 2026.

The proposed regulatory agenda submitted for public consultation includes a list of 14 priority projects to be developed by the SPA/MF in 2025 and 2026, each associated with its respective objective. The projects are classified under at least one of three thematic axes: Promotion of responsible gambling, prevention of pathological gambling and mitigation of externalities; Promotion of a balanced, transparent regulatory environment with adequate levels of compliance; and National strengthening of regulation and inspection.

Contributions can be made until 27 March via the Plataforma Participa + Brasil. ‘You have to be logged into GovBR to be able to make your contributions, which can be about the agenda in general or about each of the projects. And on 4 April we will publish the report on the contributions from the hearing and the written consultation,’ said Francisco Carvalheira, the SPA's general coordinator for regulation, who was responsible for leading the discussions on Friday.