Online betting in Brazil, regulated since the beginning of 2025 by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), of the Ministry of Treasury, was the result of a process that lasted almost six years. More than 200 betting companies applied for a license to operate in the country, a milestone considered successful by the SPA.
As it is a recent form of entertainment, specific care has been taken to ensure consumer protection, including the Responsible Gaming program.
Importance of protective measures in the betting sector in Brazil
Régis Dudena, secretary of SPA, highlighted the importance of these measures during an interview with UOL Apostas. “In the responsible gaming ordinance, there is a sequence of measures, which is to know your customer. And from ‘know your customer’, to have active monitoring of the screen time and amount of spending platform.
So, to begin with, we have a regulatory duty, which is for them (betting houses) to have a responsible gaming policy. This policy is accessible and controlled by us. Based on this policy, they carry out this type of monitoring and profiling of the bettor.”
The secretary continued: “I always like to use extremes here. The low-income young person or the retired millionaire, they have different availability, both of time and resources.
So, the bookmaker will have to identify, and we know that today, through algorithmic monitoring, without identification per se, but based on the behavior, it knows, in a short time of using the betting platform, it knows, in general, who the bettor is.
This way, if the bettor starts to spend more time than the profile he previously identified, he has to issue an alert. So, once this alert is issued, he says, look, you’ve been there for too long, you’re spending too much money. That’s right.”
Dudena explained that “after more time or more money, it generates a mandatory break. So, he says, hey, let’s go outside and have a drink of water? Because you’ve been here for a long time, you won’t be able to anymore. And in the end, he can end up excluding this bettor too. All of this is already foreseen.”
Monitoring and data sharing
According to Dudena, monitoring is ongoing and data is shared with the SPA. In addition, the agency monitors reports of debt and mental health problems associated with gambling in Brazil.
“We have been trying to do more and more, which is to go a step beyond this recognition of the person who got into debt, had mental health problems associated with gambling, wants to know where it went. Because the diagnosis is still that these major problems of large debts, large losses, as a rule, do not occur in companies that are already authorized, but rather in these other companies. That said, we know that even authorized companies will have problems.”
National awareness campaign is under development
When asked about problem gambling, the secretary said that a national awareness campaign is under development, although there is no launch date yet. “We are working to make both health tests and debt tests available.
We have a working group that is being effectively implemented together with Health, SECOM and the Ministry of Sports, in which we will discuss ways of putting this mental health test in place to make it available to betting houses.
The idea is that we also create a kind of debt test, so that people, by answering some questions, can get feedback on whether they have a debt problem.”
The regulated sector is considered essential to combat gambling addiction and illegal websites. Régis Dudena reinforced that the SPA is prepared to maintain strict monitoring.
“The problems are not trivial. I am quite convinced that the existence of a regulated sector, that the existence of controlled authorized entities is already a great start for us to be able to control the most serious problems of debt and mental health.
But, in addition, monitoring these companies and ensuring that they do not, in fact, slip up will be another of the daily tasks here at the secretariat”, he concluded.
