By using trademarks patented by Caixa, these illegal sites act to create confusion as if they were acting in an authorized manner by the public company, misleading consumers, who are unduly led to believe that such sites offer the same security and quality offered by Caixa on their official channels.
The financial institution emphasizes that this practice violates consumer rights, since the sites may be receiving money from gamblers and not placing bets with the lottery, or even not making them in a timely manner, or, even if registered, there are the risk that the receipts that entitle the holder to receive a premium are not properly made available to the purchaser.
It should be noted that these bets are often sold at prices higher than those established by the Ministry of Economy for each type of bet, without specifying how this price is composed (bet amount, service fee, etc.). In some cases there is evidence of sale of contests by these sites on a date prior to the offer by Caixa to gamblers, with false information that confuses gamblers.
In addition to such a practice harming the consumer, it can also be classified as "Exchange", and the conduct should be framed in the provisions of Art. 2 of Law No. 1,521 of December 26, 1951, in crimes against the popular economy: IX - Obtaining or trying to obtain illicit gains to the detriment of the people or an indeterminate number of people through speculation or fraudulent processes ("snowball", " chains”, “pichardism” and any other equivalents).
Decree-Law No. 204/1967 determines that the operation of Lotteries is a public service, with the operation of Federal Lotteries being delegated to Caixa, which is why the exercise of sales of federal lotteries, by electronic means or in physical units, is prohibited, by any other company or individual.
Procon Alagoas is very solicitous to give all technical and operational support in the face of the possible damages that this practice causes to consumers.
Institutional campaign
To protect consumers, Caixa has been carrying out awareness campaigns alerting the official betting channels. It should be noted that the company adopts administrative measures to curb the action and performance of online lottery product sales sites, given the risk of harm to players and to the image of Caixa Loterias.
It also points out that, currently, the only official channels for placing bets online are the Caixa Loterias Portal, available through the website www.loteriasonline.caixa.gov.br, the Loterias Caixa application, available for iOS and Android users, for all types of games, and Internet Banking Caixa (IBC), for betting on the Mega Sena.
Some instructions are aimed at informing players to use only official channels and alerting the risks of betting on unauthorized sites, such as: periodic sending to the Federal Police a list containing the mapped sites that sell Federal Lotteries; sending out-of-court notifications to the websites; activation of the Lottery regulatory body in Brazil, SECAP/ME - Secretariat for Evaluation, Planning, Energy and Lottery of the Ministry of Economy; as well as a formal complaint with the Federal Public Ministry, for the proper investigations and adoption of the necessary measures.
Source: Procon/AL
