Brazil’s finance minister calls for tighter betting rules and ad limits

Dario Durigan used a UOL News interview on Tuesday (9) to argue that Brazil should regulate betting platforms more like tobacco: tighter rules, higher taxes, and shrinking room for advertising. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the point is simple enough: Brazil is moving toward a stricter operating environment for bets, not a looser one.

1. Durigan said the Ministry of Finance wants to “keep tightening regulation,” reducing advertising, increasing taxation, and adding transparency and self-exclusion rules. He framed those measures as the practical way to control betting activity in Brazil, rather than relying on a blanket ban.
2. He explicitly rejected prohibition as policy. When asked by host Fabíola Cidral whether he favored ending bets altogether, Durigan said his position is “regulate and not prohibit,” adding that he fears a total ban would push activity into an illicit market that is harder for the government to monitor.
3. The minister acknowledged that President Lula has already expressed support for banning bets, but argued that a full prohibition could create a “market disordered, unregulated” enough to cause more damage to the country. In other words, the political debate is not settled, even if the ministry’s preferred direction is clearer.
4. Durigan tied the current scale of the sector to decisions taken earlier. He said bets were authorized to operate in Brazil in November 2018, during the Temer government, and “spent four years gaining weight in the Brazilian economy” under Temer and Bolsonaro. He also pointed to football, radio, television, and other ad-heavy sectors as evidence of how dependent parts of the market have become on betting money.
5. His closing message was aimed squarely at compliance: betting companies cannot simply enter Brazil and ignore local rules. The ministry wants them to pay taxes, follow Brazilian gaming rules, and accept limits on how aggressively they can advertise.

For high-risk operators and their payment partners, the important detail is not the tobacco comparison itself. It is the policy direction: more restrictions, more scrutiny, and a clearer link between licensing, taxation, advertising controls, and consumer-protection rules in Brazil.