In 2020, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) broke the Union’s monopoly to explore lotteries, allowing States to create their own lottery services. Currently, six of the 27 states have lotteries: Rio de Janeiro (LOTERJ), Paraná (Lottopar), Paraíba (Lotep), Maranhão (Lotema), Ceará (Lotece) and Minas Gerais (Lemg).
The Rio de Janeiro Lottery (Loterj) was the first state lottery to accredit sports betting and online games in Brazil. In addition to instant winning services (scratch cards), the municipality regularized betting in betting houses.
According to Hazenclever Lopes Cançado, president of Loterj, “the regulation of bet-type betting, in addition to providing security to bettors, also contributes to the collection of municipal, state and Union public coffers”.
Therefore, he highlights that unregulated bookmakers often commit fraud by preventing the withdrawal of small amounts, which is considered a crime.
Risks of the unregulated market.
“The betting market is not regulated. This is a serious risk to the consumer,” says Hazenclever Lopes Cançado. He warns that, in the event of bankruptcy or closure of an unregulated betting house, the consumer is left unprotected.
LOTERJ allocates part of its profits to social projects. “We, in Rio, today, through lottery profits, pay for more than 7,500 daily meals for children and adolescents in total social vulnerability,” explained Hazenclever.
Hazenclever Lopes Cançado considers Loterj‘s first year of accreditation a success. “Currently, five betting houses are operating with our license (Apostou RJ, BestBet, MarjoSports, Rio Jogo and PixBet). We paid out more than R$2 billion in prizes to bettors during our time together.”
Loterj and the controversy involving Anatel
Complying with the determination of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) informed providers operating in the state of Rio de Janeiro to block the URLs of betting sites that do not have authorization from Loterj in the last week.
Judge Paulo Zuniga Dourado accepted Loterj’s request and demanded that “Anatel promote the operational legitimacy of the listed companies” and take “the appropriate measures, within the limits of the state, to determine the suspension of fixed-odd betting lottery activities that are in disagreement with the legislation applied to the species”.
The controversy refers to the amounts charged for the grant in Rio de Janeiro of R$5 million for a period of 5 years of exploration. However, this amount is well below the Ministry of Finance’s request, which is R$30 million.
