Hermano Tavares says Brazil’s betting regulator moved first, as nearly 800,000 users request self-exclusion

Brazil’s online betting boom is now a public-health problem as much as a regulatory one, and Hermano Tavares, coordinator of the Gambling Disorder Clinic at Hospital das Clínicas, USP, says the response from the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA MF) has been more useful than he expected. The key point for operators and PSPs: the government is building central controls that sit above individual bookmakers, and that changes how responsible-gambling tools get enforced.

1. Tavares, speaking on Roda Viva on TV Cultura on Monday (27), described the rise in online betting-related harm in Brazil as a “tsunami,” but said there have been concrete advances in regulation. He said the SPA MF reached out to the health sector before the Ministry of Health did, which led to a direct working dialogue between regulators and clinicians.
2. The biggest result of that dialogue is Brazil’s self-exclusion system on the Ministry of Finance website. According to Tavares, “almost 800,000” Brazilians have already gone to the site and requested self-exclusion by registering their CPF. For regulated operators, that means the exclusion process is no longer left to each betting site’s internal controls.
3. Before this centralised model, self-exclusion was handled by the bookmakers themselves. Tavares compared that setup to “letting the fox guard the henhouse.” The federal version, by contrast, gives the measure more credibility and broader reach because it is managed by the government rather than by the industry it is meant to restrain.
4. He also highlighted a self-assessment questionnaire embedded in the same digital environment. The tool was developed from population research carried out with Caixa Econômica Federal and consists of three questions designed to identify at-risk bettors quickly and accurately.
5. Those three questions focus on loss of control, attempts to recover losses, and conflict with personal values. Tavares said they are not improvised prompts but the result of research aimed at finding the fastest way to spot gambling risk. The article breaks off before giving the next step after a “yes” answer, but the direction is clear enough: Brazil is moving toward formalised screening, not just ad hoc warnings.