Brazil’s finance minister says bets should be regulated and taxed like cigarettes

Dario Durigan said Brazil needs tighter regulation and higher taxation of betting operators to discourage use, and he tied that directly to payment controls. For PSPs and acquirers, the signal is simple: the government wants more transaction visibility, more restrictions on vulnerable users, and less betting-related traffic.

1. Speaking on Friday (24) at the Expert event hosted by XP Investimentos, Durigan said: “We have to treat betting the same way we treat cigarettes.” He added that companies operating in the segment need to report all bets to the government and pay the tax due.
2. He said Brazil is increasing taxes because “it is fair, it is due, and it is a disincentive to a mechanism that makes people’s lives harder.” In practice, that is the direction regulators and policymakers are pushing: more tax, more reporting, less friction for enforcement.
3. Durigan also said access should be limited for people already under financial stress. “Whoever receives Bolsa Família, Benefício de Prestação Continuada (BPC) or is indebted and goes to renegotiate debt in Desenrola cannot bet,” he said. He also said the government has been working to reduce betting advertising in the country.
4. He extended the same logic to consumer credit, arguing that the government and the financial system should be able to encourage or discourage borrowing. He gave the example of a customer with five credit cards and overdue debt, asking how another card could be approved in that case.
5. Durigan said many indebted people took out credit during the pandemic and were unable to manage the debt afterward. He said credit cards are the main factor affecting people’s financial lives, and reiterated that the government has been encouraging swaps from higher-interest debt to lower-interest debt through the program.

Durigan also said he remains committed to Brazil’s fiscal framework and projected that public debt should stabilize between 2029 and 2030. For payment providers exposed to Brazil’s betting market, the relevant part is not the macro line — it is the combination of tax pressure, customer restrictions, and heavier reporting expectations.