The President of Brazil’s lotteries trade body has protested the “legislative confusion” and “unprecedented legal uncertainty” that new advertising restrictions pose for the regulated industry.
Brazil has had a regulated betting market since 1 January 2025, with a plethora of local and international firms setting up shop there. It is also home to an extensive lottery sector with activity at the state, federal and municipal level.
Since the 2025 re-regulation, the betting space has faced two challenges – a costly battle against the lingering black and grey markets, which are still used by many Brazilian consumers, and growing political frustration with the industry.
This political frustration has resulted in new advertising restrictions being imposed across the country.
Plínio Lemos Jorge, President of the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL), told SBC Noticias Brasil that these rules are going to make it harder to distinguish between the regulated and unregulated markets.
The implementation of new advertising rules in municipalities like Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte has impacted “one of the main tools for combating illegal websites”, Jorge remarked.
He emphasised that the main value of advertising is that it provides “dissemination to bettors of information about those authorized by the Ministry of Finance to operate in the country”.
Betting in Brazil is overseen by the Ministry of Finance, specifically its Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) – a regulatory body established by the ‘Bets Law’ of 2024, which introduced the new regulatory regime known to many as ‘Bets’.
As well as the many betting businesses that have flocked to Brazil – Superbet, Flutter Entertainment, bet365, and Kaizen Gaming’s Betano, the latter of which is biggest in the country according to the Blask Index – many lotteries have also got involved in sports betting.
The Mineas Gerras lottery, for example, tested a sports betting product as far back as 2023.
For the ANJL and its president, regulatory fragmentation is a big challenge in 2026.
The implementation of new municipal rules around advertising comes amid the Ministry of Finance introducing its own federal rules, notably a requirement for companies to include at least one message warning of the risks of gambling in any advertising.
“Besides causing immense legislative confusion, since advertising involves different media, such as virtual and broadcast media, it generates unprecedented legal uncertainty for operators,” Jorge told SBC.
Brazilian lotteries which have seized on the expansion opportunity the 2025 regulation presented are now having to deal with the aftermath, as the administration of President Lula da Silva – who signed the Bets Law into effect despite his own personal reservations – becomes increasingly concerned with societal impacts.
The lotteries will find themselves thrust into yet another public debate, the other major one being the discussion about municipal lotteries – many of which covered jurisdictions overlapping with those of state and federal lotteries before the Federal Supreme Court opted to suspend the practice in December last year.