In order for the regulatory framework of sports betting to be effective, it is necessary to remove from the Brazilian market the companies that do not follow the rules. This was stated by the Superintendent of Supervision of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), Gesilea Fonseca Teles, at the meeting of the CPI of Bets, this Tuesday (17). She also advocated for the expansion of Anatel's legal powers to strengthen oversight and sanctions over the sector.
Gesilea Teles attended the meeting representing the director of Anatel, Carlos Manuel Baigorri, who is on vacation.
According to the superintendent, currently the activities of blocking irregular betting sites follow the framework established by the Ministry of Finance. There is a communication procedure established between the agencies, a formalized system through a cooperation agreement, where the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) is responsible for forwarding the list of pages so that the providers can carry out the blocking.
“Since October 2024, Anatel has already acted in the blocking of more than 8,560 illegal betting sites. And how does this blocking work? The Ministry of Finance sends us a list with sites that must be blocked. Anatel, in possession of this list, communicates to the providers that give access to the internet. Who are these providers? They are the mobile internet providers, which we know by cell phone, and the fixed internet providers. How many providers are we talking about? There are more than 21,000 providers”, detailed Gesilea Teles.
She clarified that it is not within Anatel's competence to block the site, the agency only communicates to the provider about the ministry's decision to interrupt the operation of the page.
“All this procedure that Anatel adopts, we cannot have interference over the network of the operators. What we do is merely a communication of a decision that is not within our competence”.
Weaknesses
However, the superintendent warned that some actions may weaken Anatel's performance. Such as the use, by the user, of virtual private networks, the so-called VPNs, to “mask” their location, circumventing the blocking system.
“The VPN makes an encrypted connection between the user and the VPN server and then you do not know where that user is. If this user connects to a VPN abroad, for example, the communication providers here do not know that he is in Brazil. And he is physically in Brazil, but virtually he is not. It is a way to circumvent a blocking order”.
Another complicating factor for Anatel's performance, according to Gesilea Teles, is the rapid change of names of illegal sites and the framing of the agency to a closed list sent by the Ministry of Finance, without the possibility of extending the blocking to a site name that has been modified and that belongs to the same group. Anatel only has this authorization when the department sends a new list containing this new information.
“The illegal sites themselves can change names. Today what is ABC Bet, tomorrow changes to ABCD Bet. It makes a change of one letter in the site and Anatel works with a closed list that is sent to us by the Ministry of Finance”.
For the rapporteur of the CPI, Senator Soraya Thronicke (Podemos-MS), it is as if Anatel were mopping up ice.
“The VPN is not illegal, but they manage to change just one point, one letter, and continue with the same platform, continuing with another name. It is something that impresses us greatly. I usually say that we are trying to change the tire with the car running and we are very late. Because they are already light years ahead of us”.
In response to Senator Izalci Lucas (PL-DF), Gesilea Teles, informed that Anatel is studying the possibility of partnering with VPN providers or technology companies to develop solutions that make the agency's performance more efficient in this notification process.
Jurisdiction
Anatel's jurisdiction is limited to carrying out notifications to telecommunications providers. The agency cannot, for example, reach, in legal terms, the agents of the digital ecosystem, such as social networks or the betting platforms themselves online.
The superintendent explained that Anatel does not have jurisdiction over the public domain name translation service providers, called DNS and over the content distribution network providers, the CDNs, such as Google and Cloudflare.
In this regard, she advocated changes in the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Law 12.965, of 2014) to grant powers to Anatel to supervise, regulate, and apply sanctions to those companies responsible for connectivity-enabling services.
“Exactly to expand Anatel's competencies. We have to be able to reach the DNS, we have to be able to reach the CDNs to have a stronger performance and supervisory competence on what is happening in the world of bets. As it stands the legal delimitation, we do not have this competence”.
Anatel is only responsible for transmitting the communication of judicial order to block sites which, according to her, so far, have been 139, and of administrative orders, coming from the Ministry of Finance, totaling 8,560.
“It is important that there can be a modernization of the Civil Rights Framework of the Internet so that both the internet connection provider and those responsible for other connectivity-enabling services and internet application providers can be held civilly and administratively responsible, should they disobey judicial orders and, most importantly, administrative orders”.
Soraya reported that she has already received the draft of the preliminary project, however, she is studying the possibility of negotiating with the Executive so that the change can be made through a provisional measure.
“He [Carlos Manuel Baigorri – president of Anatel] delivered this draft of a preliminary project, but we also discussed, given the urgency and relevance, which are the requirements of an MP, we are waiting for a schedule with Minister Fernando Haddad so that he decides whether he will make a provisional measure (...), it would be a faster way. Because the project really takes a long time".
Senator Izalci Lucas (PL-DF) mentioned the possible resistance of large platforms, such as Google and Meta, in the face of eventual civil liability for non-compliance with administrative order and questioned how Anatel intends to address this issue, should the Civil Rights Framework be amended by law project or provisional measure.
“When we think about the amendment of the Legal Framework, and then we create a legal basis for Anatel to act, I think the platforms that operate in Brazil will have to adjust and accept the legal framework of Brazil and will not be able to contest Anatel's competence. Today this doubt about competence exists because it is not clear that we can act on legal platforms. Once this is resolved, they will not be able to contest”, clarified the Anatel representative.
Senator Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF) argued that, even if the expansion of competence is not made by provisional measure, the CPI can present the project.
Investments
The rapporteur also questioned about other challenges for Anatel's performance, such as investment restrictions and access to new technologies. The guest responded that the work of the agency could be better executed if there were hiring of more professionals and more investment to optimize this type of analysis for blocking and monitoring sites with the use of artificial intelligence, especially if the competencies of the agency are expanded.
As a contribution, Izalci Lucas suggested calling the legal companies themselves to assist in the development of technological systems that can automatically track and block illegal sites.
Source: Senate Agency
