The Prizes and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Treasury (SPA-MF) and the Financial Activity Control Council (Coaf) held, last Wednesday (13), a meeting with representatives of the legal and compliance areas of online betting companies.
At the virtual meeting, which brought together more than 190 betting operators, Coaf presented what it considers to be the best models for reporting suspicious activities.
According to Law No. 9613/1998, operators must report to Coaf any activity that raises suspicion of money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Representatives from bookmakers were able to answer questions with representatives from SPA and COAF
At the meeting, market representatives were also able to answer questions about how to carry out communications, which are essential for crime prevention.
According to SPA’s general coordinator of Money Laundering Monitoring, Frederico Justo, these meetings are part of the municipality’s daily routine and allow companies to get closer to the regulatory body.
“With the regulations fully functioning, we noticed that some operators have already communicated this to Coaf, but they have done it in a very different way. We realized that there were doubts about what and how to report suspicious activity, and that’s why we came up with the idea of organizing this alignment meeting”, explained the manager.
In June 2024, the SPA published Ordinance 1,143, providing for policies, procedures and internal controls to prevent money laundering to be adopted by betting operators.
According to Rafael Bezerra Ximenes de Vasconcelos, director of Supervision at Coaf, the expectation is that suspicious activity reports will contain more details from now on. “Due to the way Coaf’s Financial Intelligence operates, it is very important to communicate correctly”, concluded Vasconcelos.
