The Ministry of Finance has determined that bets that have not requested authorization will have their operations suspended from October 1st
The government has accelerated the deadline for the legalization of online betting sites. Recently, 113 “bets” filed their applications for licenses to operate in Brazil with the General Betting System, of the Prize and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, starting in January 2025. However, a new ordinance brought the date forward to October 1st of this year.
The decision was made after complaints involving betting platforms. Between October and December, only betting companies that have requested authorization to operate the fixed-odds lottery betting modality will be able to continue operating.
By December, the Ministry must complete the process of analyzing the first requests received and, as of January 1, 2025, when the regulated betting market will begin in Brazil, only companies that comply with Law No. 13,756/2018, Law No. 14,790/2023 and the regulatory ordinances created this year will be able to operate.
In addition, approved companies will have to pay a grant of R$30 million to begin operating and, from January onwards, will need to comply with rules to combat fraud, money laundering and abusive advertising.
The new ordinance will apply to legal entities that submitted an authorization request to the Ministry of Finance by September 17 of this year. Those who are not duly authorized will be classified as illegal.
According to the MF, those who requested authorization but were not yet operating will have to wait to start operations in January, if they are authorized, upon fulfilling all requirements.
“We will maintain the adaptation period until the end of December only for those who have already demonstrated that they want to act in accordance with the law, in accordance with Brazilian rules. Many police operations involving companies that operate in the betting market in a criminal manner have come to light. This was the way we found to not wait until January to start separating the wheat from the chaff,” explained Regis Dudena, Secretary of Prizes and Bets at the MF.
According to Folha de S.Paulo, the measure came after movements against betting houses in the political sphere. Last Sunday (15), Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) announced that he will contact the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to try to take betting house websites offline until they are regulated.
In addition, Gleisi Hoffmann (PR) filed a bill that prohibits “throughout the national territory, communication, advertising and marketing actions for the fixed-odds betting lottery”, or bets, last Wednesday (11).
According to the Ministry of Finance, companies that are currently operating and have already requested authorization will have until 11:59 pm on September 30 to inform which brands are currently operating and which websites they use during the adaptation period.
Starting October 11, these websites and their respective applications will be banned and taken offline. To this end, the Treasury will intensify dialogue with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP), the Central Bank (BC) and the National Telecommunications Agency.
