Brazil’s SPA to launch mandatory gambling awareness campaign to protect players

The plans were revealed in a Tuesday (3 September) meeting of the parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI) on match-fixing, with SPA leader Regis Dudena responding to politicians’ requests for measures to counter problem gambling in Brazil.

After lengthy delays in establishing its betting regulation, Brazil’s licensed market will launch on 1 January 2025. So far 114 operators have submitted applications, meaning up to 342 brands could be live in January as each licence provides access to three skins or brands.

Politicians have raised concerns around gambling harms that may arise when the market opens and the regulator is able to properly track gambling behaviours.

Dudena and the SPA’s plans include launching a player campaign to raise awareness around the risks associated with gambling.

“It is a direct demand from the minister [of finance, Fernando Haddad],” Dudena said during the CPI meeting. “We are working on the first steps of this campaign so that the population understands that betting is mere entertainment and that people will potentially lose money.”

Other measures to counter problem gambling

The harmful potential economic impacts of gambling in Brazil were brought to light in a recent study from market research specialist Hibou, with a survey revealing 10% of the country’s population had suffered financial problems as a direct result of betting.

The survey, to which there were 2,839 respondents from all social classes in Brazil, found 68% of Brazilians gambled, with around 16% suffering from gambling-related financial issues. This equates to approximately a tenth of Brazil’s population.

Strick regulations around responsible gambling within Brazil’s normative Ordinance No 1,231 legislation will ensure operators take a unified approach to player protection. For instance operators must offer bettors the opportunity to switch on time and financial loss limits.

Players must also be able to self-exclude and operators will inform players of the risks of addiction upon registration.

Dudena said of the regulations: “We imposed specific rules on all those agents who wanted to come and work in Brazil to know their bettors, to monitor their bettors, to impose alerts in cases of gambling abuse, to impose time restrictions and, ultimately, to create blocks for these bettors.”

Political opposition to gambling ongoing

Senator Eduardo Girão has long campaigned against the legalisation of gambling, and in Tuesday’s CPI meeting, he called the liberalisation of betting an “unprecedented human tragedy”..

And while Rodrigo Alves, representative of the Brazilian Sports Betting Association (Abaesp), says Brazilians should be allowed to bet, he is wary of the negative impact gambling advertising can have on players.

“We are completely aware and agree that many people today are going beyond their limits, they don’t even know their own limits, and this is largely due to the somewhat unbridled advertising. We strongly believe in regulation, because there is no such thing as no gambling.”

Per regulations, unauthorised operators will be banned from advertising or sponsorships from 1 January.

Equally, operators must “act diligently” in their marketing. A controversy around the Asian-themed slot Fortune Tiger triggered the SPA to prohibit brands from marketing with influencers and celebrities.