Of the 114 companies that requested authorization to operate in the online betting market, 71 were allowed to pay the grant fee of R$ 30 million to explore the activity, reported the Secretary of Prizes and Bets of the Ministry of Finance, Regis Dudena in his extensive testimony at the Senate's Bets CPI. He also said that from January 1, 2025, only duly legalized companies will be able to operate.
Dudena was heard at the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry investigating the bets to explain how the government deals with the betting market, focusing on control and supervision measures. To the committee, the secretary stated that these companies met almost all the requirements demanded by the Ministry of Finance to function properly.
“So, 71 companies have already been notified by the Ministry of Finance, and they have 30 days, from the notification, to meet these final requirements. Of these, 16 have already paid the grant. We currently have 16 companies that have already paid a total of R$ 480 million in grants to the Ministry of Finance”, he stated.
“They started being notified on the 19th of last month, so they have until the 18th of this month or the 19th of this month to make this grant payment, which is why some have already complied and some have not yet complied”, he continued.
Opened in May this year, the deadline for companies to apply for certification ended in August. During this period, 114 companies applied to the department. In September, the Ministry of Finance published an ordinance suspending the operations of fixed quota betting companies, also called bets, that did not apply for authorization to operate in the country.
The deadline to request authorization expired by October 1st, and the websites of companies that did not request the regulation of operation began to be taken down on the 11th of the same month. The company that requested the license, but was not yet operating, will have to continue to wait to start operations in January, if the department authorizes the activity.
“Since then, we have already had three batches of domains that were identified by our area, in many cases with the help of the Federal Police and other criminal prosecution agencies. We have already taken down a total of 5,283 domains. There were three batches: one of 2,027, another of 1,443, a third of 1,813. So, 5,283 sites have already been taken down, and we already have another batch that should be sent to the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) for takedown”, reported Dudena.
The ordinance also determined that, from January 1, 2025, only authorized betting operators will be able to explore the activity in the country, which will take place exclusively on Brazilian internet domain, with the extension "bet.br". Authorized betting houses that pay the grant will be able to operate up to three brands for five years.
Illegal activities, fake CPFs, advertising
Dudena also said that the ministry continues to monitor the activities of companies that requested authorization. According to the secretary, some of them are using the regulation period to continue engaging in illegal activities.
“We have been very engaged in monitoring this sector to identify who the actors and who the relevant service providers are. So if, on one hand, we have some companies that, using this period of adjustment, are engaging in activities that seem illegal to us, we have notified and have managed, in most cases, or so far, all cases, to make them back down in these activities, such as the company that had more domains available on its site than was possible”.
“In addition, the financial service providers, we have also identified, and here again together with the Central Bank, with the task force of the Federal Police, to recognize who these companies are and how they have been acting”, he reported.
Another point raised during the CPI meeting was the use of fake CPFs to place bets and also to open betting companies. According to the secretary, after January 1, when only authorized companies can operate, there will be reliable data to carry out the inspection.
“Through the system, we have a first mechanism for identifying these specific cases where, for example, a CNPJ, or a canceled CPF, or a CPF that should not be there and is; and then from there it will generate an action of inspection by our sub-secretariat, which, again, can lead to information to criminal prosecution agencies, as well as, within the regulatory system of bets, to actions of inspection, sanction and ultimately even to termination”, he stated.
“From January 1st, the fullness of companies to operate in Brazil will be of national companies constituted in Brazil, according to Brazilian legislation, of which we will know who the partners are, who the final beneficiaries are, who the directors are, and then we will have total control, both of the legal entities and of the individuals involved in the activity”, he continued.
Dudena also talked about measures such as the suspension of online gambling advertising aimed at children and adolescents: “Those advertisements targeted in environments where the majority of people present are children and adolescents are restricted. One of the examples I cite is: we have a soccer team that had its under-17 team sponsored by a bet. We notified this company and this company removed the sponsorship, because this is the typical example of an activity directed at children and adolescents that, in this context, cannot have”.
The government complied with the law by regulating bets and we are organizing the sector
In his testimony, the secretary explained that after decades of prohibition, the activity of sports betting was legalized in the country in 2018, by law: "This law brought in its article 29, paragraph three, a provision for the need to regulate this sector”.
Sanctioned in December 2018, the law established a two-year deadline, extendable for another two, for regulation, but this was not done, according to Dudena. By identifying that the law was insufficient, in 2023 the Government sent a new bill and also a provisional measure to Congress.
"This provisional measure and this bill basically aim at three things: the protection of bettors; the protection of the popular economy, with the increase of control to combat money laundering; and seeks to weaken the risks of manipulation of sports results”, he explained.
Regis Dudena highlighted that the text expressly prohibits children and adolescents from the activity. At the CPI he explained that in October 2023, the Ministry of Finance issued a normative ordinance with general rules for betting activities in the country and that more than 5,000 betting sites have already been taken down for committing illegalities.
Requests from Senator Soraya Thronicke
Senator Soraya Thronicke, rapporteur of the Bets CPI, explained that there are two types of bets: sports bets, from lotteries, which have moved to the virtual environment, and gambling; but for the CNPJ of these companies to obtain a possible grant from the government for the provision of the service, it is essential to assess whether there is any criminal offense.
Soraya said that she has already asked for the consultancy to analyze whether there was or not this tacit derogation - that is, that the 2023 law has, indirectly, made legal what was previously considered a criminal offense.
The senator reported that she met with the president of Anatel, Carlos Baigorri, to discuss the difficulty in blocking illegal betting sites, since, according to her, these sites end up operating again with another CNPJ.
Soraya Thronicke said she received from the president of Anatel a draft bill to increase the agency's competencies, so that it can act more efficiently in blocking illegal betting sites.
Source: GMB / Agência Brasil
