ANJL reviews Brazil draft rules that would tighten authorization criteria for betting operators

The Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) met on Friday, 31, to review the draft ordinance that would replace Portaria SPA/MF nº 827/2024 and reshape the Ministry of Finance’s authorization criteria for betting operators in Brazil. For PSPs and other payment partners, the important part is straightforward: the draft goes harder on AML documentation, brings forward checks on economic substance and capital origin, and spells out the information requirements in more detail.

1. ANJL said the meeting focused on the main points of the draft ordinance and on the contributions the association had received by the day before, including proposed changes, areas of concern, and the impacts identified by member companies. In other words: this is not just a legal drafting exercise, but a practical review of what will become operationally painful for operators and their vendors.
2. According to the Ministry of Finance, the changes are built around three main pillars: stricter documentary requirements to combat money laundering; earlier assessment of the operator’s economic backing and the origin of its capital; and a much more detailed rule set designed to reduce information asymmetries. For payment providers, that combination usually means more scrutiny on source of funds, ownership structures, and the paperwork sitting behind the merchant account.
3. ANJL’s legal team — Hygo Carvalho, Pedro Prates, Rafael Fernandes, and Alice Ravazzoli — presented a technical analysis of the submitted contributions and grouped them by topic, operator impact, and criticality level. That kind of internal triage matters because it separates the items that are merely annoying from the ones that can affect licensing, onboarding, and ongoing processing relationships.
4. ANJL president Plínio Lemos Jorge said the association will address the sensitive items in the draft collectively and propose the changes needed for the Brazilian betting market to function properly. The association plans additional meetings in the coming weeks before sending joint suggestions to the SPA, and the public consultation remains open until 9 September.

For high-risk PSPs, the practical takeaway is that Brazil is moving toward tighter authorization checks, not looser ones. That affects which operators can get licensed, how quickly they can be onboarded, and how much documentation a bank or acquirer will want before saying yes.