The Federal Government is developing a national database to register citizens prohibited from betting on online platforms, known as “bets”.
The Secretary of Prizes and Bets at the Ministry of Treasury, Regis Dudena, announced that the system should be ready by the second half of this year. The initiative is a priority on the secretariat’s regulatory agenda for 2025 and 2026.
The registration will undergo public consultation between April and June. According to Dudena, the Ministry of Treasury is preparing the IT system. The database intends to centralize the list of people prohibited from betting online and pass the data on to companies in the sector. Furthermore, the system seeks to ensure greater control over operations.
Dudena stated: “In the second quarter, we intend to put this model out for public consultation and, based on the responses and feedback we receive, we can implement it.
The idea, then, is that this will be implemented in the second half of the year, depending on the solutions.” The statement was made during a press conference to present the organization’s agenda until the end of 2025.
According to legislation, football coaches, players, referees, people under 18 and members of regulatory bodies are prohibited from betting. Furthermore, the register will include people prohibited by court decision.
The Secretary of Prizes and Betting explained: “The technological solution is a centralization of a database that will think about the best way to ensure that prohibited people do not have their registrations accepted at bookmakers.”
While the registration of bettors will be implemented later, the government is collecting suggestions from society to develop the regulatory agenda.
The public consultation will be available on the Participa Mais Brasil platform until March 27th. On February 21, the secretariat will hold an online public hearing to hear from interested parties.
Betting industry statistics
Régis Dudena also presented data on the first phase of electronic betting regulation, which ended on December 31st. In total, 68 companies were authorized to operate in the country, with 70 grants paid and 153 trademarks registered.
The companies paid R$2.1 billion in five-year grants, with each one costing R$30 million, according to the legislation.
Regarding illegal websites, Dudena reported that the secretariat ordered the blocking of 11,555 domains from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel). In January alone, after the regulated market came into force, the secretariat carried out 75 inspection actions.
The secretary highlighted: “The regulatory body does not mix with the criminal prosecution body. It is up to us to identify who they are, associate these influencers with companies for which they provide services, speak to platforms, media and social networks to ask for this to be overturned.
We have a regulatory role and then, continuously, the criminal enforcement bodies are called.”
Restrictions on social programs
In 2023, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) prohibited the use of resources from social programs, such as Bolsa Família, in online betting. Dudena admitted difficulties in supervision due to the lack of clarification from the STF.
Regís Dudena stated: “The constitutional law leadership of the Judiciary decided that some way of restricting values of social programs is necessary. What is our difficulty here? The decisions, as they were handed down, raise doubts about how they should be applied.
Because of this, the Federal Attorney General’s Office filed an appeal to clarify exactly what was intended with these decisions. Here we comply with decisions, what we will do is comply with decisions as soon as it is clear exactly what the decision is.”
In December, the Federal Attorney General’s Office (AGU) informed the STF about the challenges in preventing the use of Bolsa Família resources in bets. Thus, the Federal Government highlighted difficulties in distinguishing, in bettors’ accounts, resources from social benefits and money from other sources of income.
Finally, the AGU also requested clarification on whether the ban applies to bets on state platforms. In the appeal, the government argued that, after payment of social benefits, the resources in bank accounts become private. Therefore, this makes inspection difficult.
