Supreme Court orders new measures in Brazil’s gambling regulations

The court has ordered an immediate ban on gambling using social benefits.

Brazil.- The Supreme Court has ordered changes to the rules for Brazil’s upcoming regulated online gambling market to address recent concerns about customers gambling using welfare funds. The court has ordered that articles be amended to ban the use of social benefits for gambling.

Brazil’s regulated online gambling market is due to launch on January 1, 2025, but operators already active on the grey market have been given permission to continue operating during the transition provided they applied for licences under the new framework. However, concerns have been rising over the potential impact of online gambling on personal finances.

Luiz Fux, Minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court, proposed a change to articles in Ordinance 1231, which was submitted to the government by the new Brazilian gambling regulator, the SPA, in August. The changes expressly ban online gambling using funds from social programmes. He also proposed the addition of articles prohibiting the advertising of gambling to under 18s in sports sponsorships and media platforms. The Supreme Court has agreed with the proposal ordering its immediate introduction.

Fux said: “It seems the current scenario of obvious insufficient protection with immediate harmful effects, especially on children, adolescents and the family budgets of the beneficiaries of assistance programs, constitutes a manifesto periculum in mora [danger in delay], which must be eliminated immediately.”

The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) welcomed the move saying that operators were already in favour of such rules. Other added protection measures introduced ahead of the opening of the regulated market have seen operators agree to bring forward a ban on gambling using credit cards.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is due to rule on a legal challenge brought by the trade union CNC that questions the constitutionality of the framework for regulated online gambling in Brazil. In a two-day hearing, regulators and stakeholders in the betting sector defended the framework. Regis Dudena, head of the SPA, stressed that the regulated market was expected to contribute significant revenue to the state and that blocking the process could lead to more illegal gambling.