The regulation of the sector under the responsibility of the Prizes and Bets Secretariat (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance will prohibit the use of credit cards for payments for the so-called 'Bets' as of January 1st. The use of Pix, TED, boleto and debit or postpaid cards will still be permitted to place bets.
Although there is no official information on the payment methods used in games, sector data indicate that around 90% of bets are made with Pix. Abecs says that “the use of credit cards in these segments has proven to be insignificant.”
In a note, the entity states that it based its decision “on the growing concern of the card sector regarding the prevention of over-indebtedness of the population and the growth of online betting in the country."
On Tuesday (1), the vice-president of the association, Ricardo Vieira, stated that less than 1% of the financial volume destined to online betting houses in Brazil is paid via cards.
On the 25th, the two main entities in the online betting sector – National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR) – stated that their members would stop accepting payments via credit card. The sector reinforces that the adoption of this method is low.
Payment companies that work with 'Bets' state that they have already avoided accepting payments by credit card due to the high rate of cancellations at the request of the bettor. This behavior would generate a risk for the initiator of the payment.
However, retailers and the banking sector are required to designate the use of credit cards to pay for bets. One concern is the increase in defaults, which could have more serious consequences for this payment method.
Source: GMB
