Decree No. 11,907 was promulgated, introducing the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) in the Ministry of Finance (MF), as recorded in the Official Gazette of the Union on Wednesday (31/1).
This measure represents an advance in the structure of the department, providing the consolidation of the new secretariat with its respective competencies and its own functional framework.
Thus, focusing on the regulation of the fixed-odd betting market, encompassing sports betting and online games.
Furthermore, SPA assumes the legal responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance regarding lotteries and commercial promotions.
The responsibilities of the new Secretariat include surveillance and prevention of money laundering. As well as market monitoring, with a view, among other aspects, to the formulation of responsible gaming policies.
This concept encompasses measures designed to prevent the development of gambling-related addictions, prevent debt and protect vulnerable groups, especially minors.
It also covers the supervision and inspection of communication, advertising and marketing practices, as established by Law No. 14,790, of 2023.
With this addition, the Ministry of Finance now houses eight secretariats, including the recently created Secretariat for Prizes and Bettting.
Thus, adding to the existing ones:
- Executive Secretary;
- Special Secretariat of the Federal Revenue;
- National Treasury Secretariat;
- Secretariat for International Affairs;
- Secretariat of Economic Policy;
- Secretariat of Economic Reforms;
- Extraordinary Secretariat for Tax Reform.
Operation of the Prizes and Betting Secretariat
The SPA structure comprises three sub-secretariats, totaling 38 professional positions.
The Authorization Subsecretariat will be responsible, among other duties, for analyzing requests for authorization to carry out actions involving free distribution of prizes.
In addition to sweepstakes, gift certificates, contests and similar operations, in addition to the regulation of fixed-odd bets and other lottery modalities.
It will also have jurisdiction over sweepstakes and lotteries promoted by entities linked to horse racing.
In turn, the Undersecretariat for Monitoring and Inspection will supervise and implement inspection activities related to the modalities authorized by the Undersecretariat for Authorization.
Meanwhile, the Subsecretariat for Sanctioning Action will be in charge of judging Administrative Sanctioning Processes in the first instance, according to the established legal limits and powers, as well as analyzing requests for reconsideration and review related to these processes.
The SPA’s activities will be developed in coordination with the Ministry of Sport, which has powers related to sporting integrity, including monitoring manipulation of results in sporting events, in addition to responsibilities relating to transfers destined to athletes, clubs and sports management bodies.
Betting regulation
At the end of 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned Law No. 14,790/2023, which deals with fixed-odd bets and regulates the well-known “bets market“.
This new legislation establishes guidelines on taxation, standards for the commercial exploitation of fixed-odd bets, distribution of revenue collected, sanctions and the Ministry of Finance‘s powers in regulating, authorizing, monitoring and inspecting the activity.
This scope encompasses virtual and physical betting, real sporting events, online games and virtual online gaming events.
The enactment of Law No. 14,790/2023 filled a regulatory gap that had lasted for years.
The lottery modality known as “fixed-odd betting” should have been regulated by the end of 2020 (two years after the publication of Law No. 13,756/2018, which legalized this modality), however, this deadline was not met under the previous government.
Therefore, the situation was debated throughout 2023, resulting in the approval of the law in the National Congress.
