AMIG Challenges Exclusion From Brazil Betting Debate and Seeks Meeting With Lula

The Associação de Mulheres da Indústria do Gaming (AMIG) says it was left out of a federal meeting on the impact of fixed-odds betting in Brazil, even though the discussion centered on a sector regulated by the Ministry of Finance’s Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas (SPA-MF). For PSPs, acquirers, and operators, the point is simple: Brazil keeps talking about betting policy, tax, and social impact, but the regulated market is still fighting to get a seat at the table.

1. AMIG sent a formal letter on Wednesday (2/9) to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, saying the federal government had convened a meeting on Tuesday (1º/09) to discuss the impact of fixed-odds betting on Brazilian society. The association, which says it represents more than 1,400 gaming industry professionals, asked for an audience with Lula and for the regulated market to be included in any decision-making process on the topic.
2. The letter, also addressed to the heads of the Casa Civil, Fazenda, Justiça, Esporte, Ministério das Mulheres, and the Secretaria de Comunicação Social, says the meeting was presented as a “space to listen to society” but, according to AMIG, only heard organizations opposed to the sector. AMIG says there was no technical contradiction and no representation from companies authorized to operate in Brazil.
3. The association says the meeting dealt with an issue that sits at the core of SPA-MF’s remit, yet the regulator was not represented. AMIG’s line is blunt: discussing the future of betting without SPA-MF is, institutionally, like debating industrial policy without the agency responsible for the industry. It also notes that the Ministério das Mulheres was absent from a meeting where the main argument was the impact of betting on women and families.
4. AMIG says the 85 companies authorized by SPA-MF went through a strict approval process: they set up legal entities in Brazil, had their corporate and financial structures reviewed by the state, and paid R$ 30 million per authorization into the Conta Única do Tesouro Nacional. The association adds that the sector’s tax take reached R$ 9 billion in 2025, according to information the Receita Federal provided to the Câmara dos Deputados, and that another R$ 3,1 billion had already been collected between January and April 2026.
5. AMIG also disputes the data cited in the Tuesday meeting about women and betting. On the claim that 42% of women bet or have bet, the association says official government data show women account for 31,53% of bettors on licensed platforms. Its objection is methodological: the figure appears to combine current bettors with people who placed a single bet in the past, without separating frequency, stakes, or problematic behavior. AMIG says the same problem applies to the claim that 67% of women believe betting is “ending families,” but the source text cuts off before giving the full statement.

For high-risk payment providers, the useful takeaway is not the argument over social policy itself. It is that Brazil’s regulated betting market is now large enough to generate R$ 9 billion in tax revenue in 2025, with R$ 3,1 billion more collected by April 2026, while still being pulled into policy debates where the regulator and licensed operators say they were not properly heard.