Brazil betting sector objects to being left out of Lula’s online gambling meeting

Brazil’s National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) says the Federal Government’s September 1 meeting on online sports betting had a familiar problem: it discussed the regulated market without bringing the regulated market into the room. For PSPs and other payment providers, that matters because policy made without operators and the regulator tends to be policy made with less practical detail and more noise.

1. ANJL said the meeting, chaired by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday, September 1, brought together representatives from health, culture, economy, civil society, and religious organizations, but excluded companies from the regulated betting sector.
2. The association also objected to the composition of the room. According to ANJL, some participants had previously taken critical positions on Brazil’s betting market, while no representative of the regulated industry was allowed to present data or arguments from the operator side. ANJL president Plínio Lemos Jorge said that excluding the regulated sector weakens the democratic character of any public policy discussion on the issue.
3. ANJL said the exclusion extended to the state itself: the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), which sits under the Ministry of Finance and regulates the sector in Brazil, was not invited. The association called that inconsistent with the government’s stated goal of protecting consumers and preventing gambling addiction, since the technical body responsible for those measures was not present.
4. The group also said figures presented during the meeting did not match official data available in Brazil. Its point is simple: if the government uses numbers the industry considers questionable and does not allow operators to present their own data, the conclusions of the meeting lose legitimacy.
5. ANJL reiterated that Brazil’s sports betting market operates under a law approved by the National Congress after a public debate process. In its view, any change to that framework should follow the same route, with regulators, companies, and civil society at the table.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: in Brazil, pressure on the regulated betting market does not remove demand. ANJL argues it pushes activity toward clandestine platforms, where there are no rules on addiction prevention, minors’ protection, responsible advertising, or debt controls.