Brazil’s betting regulation enters a new phase as advertising becomes the main challenge

The opening of a public consultation to revise Brazil’s betting authorization rules marks another step in the consolidation of the regulated market, according to José Frederico Cimino Manssur of Natal & Manssur Advogados. For operators and payment providers, the important part is not just the licensing reset: the next pressure point is advertising, where the rules are already getting tighter.

1. The consultation was opened by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance on 27 July and accepts contributions until 9 September. The draft will replace Portaria SPA/MF nº 827/2024 and adds new requirements even for companies that already hold authorization, with adaptation deadlines of 60, 90 and 180 days.
2. Manssur said the consultation is positive because it lets companies and society comment while the market is already operating. In his view, that is the right moment to identify problems and refine the framework, rather than freezing the sector with prohibition proposals.
3. The draft sets more detailed criteria for corporate structure, source of funds, financial capacity, administrators and trademark registration. Manssur’s view is that these requirements should be treated as regulatory maturation, not as excessive barriers.
4. He also argued that a ban would not eliminate betting; it would push players toward illegal platforms outside regulatory oversight. In his assessment, revocation would hurt the sector, employment and tax collection while the clandestine market continued to operate.
5. The next regulatory phase, in his view, is advertising. In July, new rules began requiring warnings about betting risks and expanded responsibility to operators, influencers, commentators and other participants in promotion. Manssur said the rules should stop guarantees of results and any framing of betting as investment, a profession or a path to wealth.

For high-risk PSPs and acquirers, the signal is straightforward: Brazil is not just tightening access to the market, it is also policing how betting is sold. That matters because advertising rules tend to spill into merchant risk, affiliate control and the kind of content that can trigger compliance headaches long before a transaction is processed.