GAT Official Launch Brazil Ends with Compliance, Legal Certainty, and Responsible Gambling in Focus

The first edition of GAT Brazil wrapped up on Thursday, July 30 with a room full of gaming and betting executives and a fairly clear message: governance, compliance, legal certainty, responsible gambling policies, and institutional strengthening are what will determine whether Brazil’s market grows in a way PSPs can actually underwrite.

1. José Aníbal Aguirre, Founder and CEO of GAT Events, framed Brazil as the largest market in Latin America and announced the I Latin American Responsible Gambling Congress, scheduled for October 20 and 21, 2027, again in São Paulo.
2. Alex Pariente, Chair of GAT Official Launch Brasil 2026 and Founder & Principal of Pariente Advisory, opened the conference program in the Luiz Nazareno hall at the Jockey Club, where 200 C-level executives from the region gathered.
3. Pariente said Brazil built its market in 2025 and ended its first year with R$ 37 billion in GGR. He also said there is a similar volume, estimated at around R$ 37 billion, still moving through the illegal gambling chain, which he said hurts the sector’s credibility.
4. In Pariente’s view, the Secretaria de Premios y Apuestas (SPA) has done an exceptional job in consolidating a sustainable regulated market, and the measures adopted under the regulation have been satisfactory for formal operators. The catch, as he put it, is that channelization remains incomplete, with mirror domains outpacing takedown actions.
5. Liliana Costa, Director for Latin America at World Gaming Business, said Brazil is one of the markets with the strongest outlook for the industry and confirmed the company’s role as media partner for the official GAT launch in Brazil, while also pointing to its presence at ICE Barcelona to keep the Brazilian and Latin American regulatory debate in view.

For high-risk payment providers, the useful signal here is not the conference choreography. It is the combination of a large regulated market, incomplete channelization, and a still-active illegal volume that is roughly the same size as the formal GGR. That is exactly the kind of environment where underwriting, monitoring, and merchant selection do not stay static for long.