This Tuesday (3), the CPI of Game Manipulation and Sports Betting heard from the Secretary of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance, Regis Dudena. Lawmakers demanded measures to curb potential problems from games, and he stated that the secretariat is working to launch a campaign this year to raise awareness about gaming, and that starting next year, companies authorized to operate sports betting will also join the action.
In the first seven months of 2024, 25 million Brazilians started making online bets. The data comes from a survey by the Locomotiva Institute, conducted in the first week of August. The rapid growth of betting apps, or bets, concerns senators, who point out risks of addiction and indebtedness of the population.
The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Game Manipulation and Sports Betting (CPIMJAE) heard from the Secretary of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance, Regis Dudena, and the members of the committee demanded measures to curb potential problems from games.
Faced with questions from senators, Dudena stated that the secretariat is working to launch a campaign this year to raise awareness about gaming, and that starting next year, companies authorized to operate sports betting will also join the campaign.
“It is a direct demand from Minister Fernando Haddad. We are working on the first steps of this campaign so that the population understands that betting is mere entertainment and that potentially people will lose money,” said Secretary Régis Dudena after being questioned by the president of the CPI, Senator Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO).
According to a survey cited by the CPI rapporteur, Senator Romário (PL-RJ), 80% of people who bet are in debt and 2% of the household budget of classes C, D, and E are compromised with bets.
Currently, the secretariat has ordinances to regulate the sector, as pointed out by Dudena. One of them establishes limits for logged-in time, among other measures to protect bettors and prevent over-indebtedness and problems related to game dependency. Also, 113 requests for authorization from companies to explore the sports betting market starting in January 2025 are under review.
“We imposed on all those agents who want to operate in Brazil specific rules to know their bettors, monitor them, impose alerts in cases of game abuse, to impose time restrictions and, ultimately, create blocks for these bettors,” he pointed out.
Opposed to the legalization of games, Senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE) stated that addiction to online betting can be compared to a public health epidemic. Like Girão, Senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ) lamented the growth of betting.
The voice of the consumer
Representative of the consumers of the betting market, Rodrigo Alves, president of the Brazilian Association of Sports Betting (Abaesp), defended the right of Brazilians to bet, but acknowledged potential risks. For Alves, one of the central problems lies in advertising.
“Cases of indebtedness, of problems come to us constantly. We are totally sensitive and agree that many today are going beyond limits, not even knowing their own limits, and, in large part, it is due to somewhat unbridled advertising. We strongly believe in regulation, because there is no non-gaming,” he said.
Regarding advertising, Regis Dudena pointed out that one of the ordinances stipulates that from January 1st, all companies that do not have authorization will be prohibited from advertising or sponsorship.
“The Ministry of Finance, as the national regulatory body on the subject, will be able to notify companies to prohibit both the advertising of companies and prohibit participants, that is, influencers, the so-called affiliates, from talking about unauthorized companies.”
Source: Senate Agency
A check made by Estadão in partnership with the Comprova Project detected that the information that bets on Mega-Sena had fallen in 2024 due to the growth of bets in Brazil is false. A post published on X said that the federal government “is in despair” with the results of the country's most important lottery. According to Caixa, the variation was positive by 22% from January to August this year.
The content investigated was a publication on X that claims that the federal government “is in despair”, because “people stopped playing Mega-Sena and are giving all their money to online bets”.
Estadão and Comprova, a collaborative and non-profit initiative led and maintained by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism, went after the data and proved the falsehood of the publication.
In conclusion, Comprova attests: “It is not true that Brazilians are stopping betting on Mega-Sena, the main lottery of Caixa Econômica Federal, to put their money in online bets – contrary to what the publication on X says. Contacted by Comprova, the institution denied there was a drop in the number of games.”
“The bets on Mega-Sena showed a positive variation of 22% from January to August 2024, compared to the same period in 2023,” stated the institution, which does not provide the absolute number of bets.
This positive variation means that, contrary to what the investigated publication claims, the bets have increased so far. According to Caixa, this growth is related to the value of the prizes, the quantity, and the collection. Bets can be made at lottery outlets and on the bank's digital platforms.
On the institution's website, it was possible to verify that from January to August this year, the collection with Mega-Sena was R$ 6.076.232.420. In the same period of 2023, the value was R$ 5.315.120.448, considering inflation.
Another data that contradicts the idea of a drop in the number of bettors was from Mega da Virada: in 2023, it recorded more than 485.25 million bets, compared to about 435.21 million the previous year.
Although the post misinforms by talking about a drop in Mega-Sena, it is correct in suggesting that online bets, or bets, are increasing. The sector grew 734.6% between 2021 and April this year, according to research from the data analysis platform Datahub, published by CNN.
But the claim that bets would be competitors of Mega-Sena has already been refuted by the director-president of CAIXA Loterias, Lucíola Vasconcelos. In August, she said: “[Lotteries and bets] are not competitive markets. We started operating in a new market of games and bets. Speaking of strategy, we know it is a very large market and regulation will bring more formality to the market.”
Reach of the publication
Comprova investigates the suspicious contents with the greatest reach on social networks. Until August 27, before the suspension of X, the publication had 3.7 thousand views.
The sources consulted by Estadão and Comprova were Caixa Econômica Federal, via communication advisory, data available on the official portal of the institution, and articles from CNN and UOL on the subject.
Source: Estadão
Betting houses will have an additional 15 days, starting this Thursday (5), to operate regulated sportsbooks and online gaming in Rio de Janeiro. Loterj reopened the accreditation period, maintaining all the clauses and conditions of the Accreditation Notice No. 01/2023.
The goal of the State Lottery of Rio de Janeiro is to attract even more companies to the regulated market and ensure an increase in revenue, both from the grant itself, of R$ 5.2 million, and from the tax associated with the operation, which was set at 5% on GGR.
The previous deadline ended on August 14, a week before the betting houses also submitted their license applications to the Secretary of Prizes and Betting (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance to operate throughout Brazil.
In the federal case, 113 license applications were submitted while the previous accreditation of Loterj had about 20 companies submitting accreditation requests. For strategic reasons, Loterj did not disclose the exact number of companies that presented themselves to the agency.
With the new reopening, Loterj continues with its project to become the main state lottery in Brazil and keeps open the accreditation for sports betting and online gaming companies to qualify in Rio de Janeiro until early November.
Already in operation in the state are Apostou RJ, Bestbet, MarjoSports, Caesars Sportsbook/BiG Brazil, RioJogos and Pixbet. Other Brazilian, European, and North American companies continue with the accreditation in progress and undergoing technical analyses and Proof of Concept (PoC).
All information about the Notice is available on the website https://www.loterj.rj.gov.br/
Source: GMB
