AMIG says a betting ban would affect 10 million women and 10,000 workers in Brazil

The Association of Women in the Gaming Industry (AMIG) has issued an open letter against calls to shut down or ban companies authorized to operate in Brazil’s regulated betting market. Its point is simple: if policymakers go after the licensed market, the damage lands on jobs, tax-compliant operators, and the consumer protections that come with regulation.

1. AMIG said the move would directly affect about 10,000 women working in the sector and more than 10 million registered women bettors in the regulated market. The association released the letter on Tuesday, 15/9, in response to public statements calling for the closure or prohibition of licensed betting companies in Brazil.
2. The group says it has about 1,500 members and represents professionals in technology, compliance, legal, anti-money laundering, responsible gaming, payments, and information security. In other words, this is not being framed as a narrow lobbying issue for operators; AMIG is arguing that the sector supports a wider payroll of specialist functions that PSPs and banks also care about when they assess merchant risk.
3. AMIG cites official data from the Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas do Ministério da Fazenda (SPA/MF): women account for 31.70% of active bettors in Brazil’s regulated market. That equals 10.1 million female bettors out of 31,821,805 unique active bettors, according to Despacho SEI nº 64292406 (Processo nº 19995.012803/2026-27), using SIGAP data extracted on 8 September 2026.
4. The association argues that pushing demand into the underground market would not eliminate it; it would remove the protections built into the regulated environment, including bettor identification, age verification, self-exclusion, risk monitoring, transaction traceability, and data protection. It also says illegal operators do not answer to SPA/MF, do not follow responsible gaming obligations, and do not pay the taxes required from licensed companies.
5. AMIG says it is not arguing for a free pass for the industry. Its founders back strong regulation, effective supervision, strict action against illegal gambling, prevention and treatment policies for problem gambling, financial education, and responsible advertising. Their line is that if the rules are failing, the answer is to fix the rules, not dismantle the structure built to enforce them.

For PSPs, acquirers, and banking partners, the useful detail here is the split between licensed and illicit flow. AMIG is effectively arguing that regulatory pressure should target unlicensed operators, because the regulated channel is where identification, controls, and transaction-level visibility exist. That is the part of the market that actually fits underwriting logic.