The leadership of the Rio de Janeiro State Lottery (Loterj) has stressed that combatting illegal gambling should be the top priority for the Brazilian gambling sector, and the regulators that oversee it.
In a statement this week, Loterj has called for greater cooperation between regulators, the industry and other public agencies, and for more transparent allocation of resources and consumer protection efforts.
The lottery is also making the case for responsible gaming to be better promoted as a pillar of a ‘model that seeks to align economic growth, legal certainty, and social impact”.
Illegal gambling is a lingering challenge for the Brazilian betting and gaming space, which was regulated on 1 January 2025 under the ‘Bets’ laws – approved by President Lula da Silva, despite his own personal reservations about the industry.
Brazil remains home to an extensive black market, however, and competing against this has been a big challenge for the regulated industry. Politicians and bookmakers have long emphasised the importance of clamping down on this illegal market.
Fabíola Esteves, Loterj President, said: “State lotteries can contribute to a regulated and supervised environment, but eradicating illegality depends on coordinated action between states, the federal government, the judiciary, police forces, the financial system, digital platforms, and consumer protection agencies.”
Loterj’s leadership believes that its objectives can be achieved by strengthening regulatory intelligence, data protections and money laundering frameworks, and conducting more rigorous audits and real-time monitoring of the industry.
The lottery has also called on more actions to prevent gambling addiction. The political scrutiny Brazilian gaming has been facing over the past year, including from the President, may make such measures even more important.
Concerns about the impact illegal gambling is having on the legitimate industry are not unique to Brazil. Other Latin American nations face similar challenges, as Director of the City Lottery of Buenos Aires, Ezequiel Dominguez, recently told SBC.
“There has been an expansion of unauthorised platforms, offshore sites, the use of social media and influencers to attract users — especially young people — and new models that attempt to present themselves as financial or technological products in order to avoid regulatory controls,” he said.
A question Brazilian regulators and the industry may have to factor into any anti-black market strategies, however, is municipal lotteries – a phenomenon that is very unique to Brazil, even if illegal gambling is not.