Brazilian lottery association takes stance against .bet.br domain requirement
Analome says the requirement violates the right to free enterprise.
Brazil.- State lotteries in Brazil have come out in opposition to a rule that requires regulated gambling platforms to use .bet.br internet domain names. Analome, the National Association of Municipal and State Lotteries, says the rule violates legal integrity and constitutional provisions on free competition and consumer protection and threatens the activities of the municipal and state lotteries using other domains.
Under Ordinance SPA/MF 566 from Brazil’s new federal gambling regulator, the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA), only platforms with bet.br addresses can be considered as authorised gambling sites in Brazil. However, most existing state and municipal lotteries use other domains.
Analome says the restriction means legal risks for exporters and disadvantages for companies that comply with the state and municipal rules. It claims that the rule breaches Article 5, Section II of the Federal Constitution, which states that no one shall be permitted to act or refrain from acting without a legal reason.
Analome president Camilo Roma de Brito said: “This restriction will not prevent criminal activities. Instead, it creates legal uncertainty and exposes those who are currently operating within state and municipal laws.”
Brito suggested that the SPA’s ordinance was intended to create a monopoly over the betting market and said Analome was considering seeking a writ of mandamus to protect state and municipal lottery operators. He insisted that a technical conversation is necessary to create an efficient regulatory system.
In January, the Rio de Janeiro state lottery operator Loterj called for the .bet.br domain to be assigned to all regulated gambling operators in Brazil, including those with a state lottery licence rather than only those with a federal licence from the SPA. It suggested that this would help consumers to identify if a site is legal.
In February, the Supreme Federal Court confirmed that gambling operators licensed by Loterj cannot offer online gambling, sports betting or lottery outside of Rio de Janeiro state. The court upheld a preliminary injunction issued by Justice André Mendonça in October.
In 2023, Rio preempted the regulation of online gambling in Brazil at the federal level by granting its own five-year licences. However, the national government lodged Civil Action No. 3,696 arguing that state licences have no standing in the rest of Brazil. When the federal regulated online gambling framework began in January, Loterj-licensed operators were ordered not to take bets outside of Rio and were given five days to apply geolocation blocks to prevent operations in other states.
