With control over financial operations, the Treasury will monitor transactions in search of identifying suspicious activities. The regulation of the so-called “responsible gaming” also determines that 'Bets' companies cross-reference betting data with players’ income in order to avoid over-indebtedness and addiction, in addition to other social problems.
To this end, 'Bets' must provide the possibility of adopting betting limits based on elapsed time, financial loss, amount deposited or number of bets and create alerts and temporary account blocks.
'Bets' information will be forwarded to the government in a continuous flow through the Betting Management System (Sigap). Given the volume of data, however, at the beginning, the transfer is occurring in a staggered manner.
“We have started receiving the databases of registered bettors. From then on, in the next few days, we will start receiving the financial transactions associated with each of these bettors,” said the Secretary of Prizes and Bets, Regis Dudena.
The migration of bettors to the regulated market is not automatic, it depends on the authorization of the player, who must register again on the platform, including facial recognition and a checking account for financial transactions.
Bettors who do not wish to participate will be able to withdraw their funds on the old websites. All authorized betting houses are domiciled in the country and can now only operate with the domain bet.br.
“By the middle of the month, we may already know more or less how many bettors we have, how much they have bet daily, how much they have deposited daily, how much they have won and how much they have lost,” Dudena estimated.
Initial list
In total, the Treasury has already granted definitive authorization to 14 companies. Each authorization can contain up to three brands, and a new authorization is required to operate another set of up to three brands. Another 52 companies obtained authorizations on a provisional basis.
These temporary authorizations were granted to companies that have already met the requirements, including payment of the R$30 million grant, but have pending issues that can be corrected, such as documents related to system certification. Companies with provisional authorizations have a period of 30 days, extendable by another 30 days, to deliver the mandatory technical certificates.
The companies on this initial list are those that made up the group of those that submitted their requests by August 20, 2024. Requests made after this date remain under analysis and must be processed within 150 days from the submission of the initial documentation.
“Not only did we not identify anything about the past, but it cannot slip at any time in the future. Any deviation may be subject to a sanctioning process, which may even lead to the revocation of the authorization,” warned Dudena.
For companies that requested authorization and did not meet the requirements, the request was denied, which can be appealed administratively.
Betting houses that are not on the Finance's list will not be able to operate nationwide. States may accredit 'Bets' shops that operate limited to their territories, including with regard to advertising or sponsorship.
Combating irregularities
Since October, the Ministry of Finance, with the help of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), has been taking down websites considered illegal to operate in the transition phase, which lasted until the end of last year. This action will continue, but the secretary says that it is not enough.
To prevent unauthorized companies from operating, Dudena says that an important step will be the “financial strangulation” of companies. The law that regulates the fixed-odds betting market prohibits financial and payment institutions from processing unauthorized 'Bet' transfers.
There are talks with financial sector associations to help institutions set up a methodology to identify companies. Banks and other institutions authorized by the Central Bank are already required to “know their customers” and have mechanisms in place to do so.
In addition, the financial transactions of 'Bets' have a specific standard. Typically, these are company accounts that receive amounts spread across several CPFs, part of which is returned and the rest goes to a foreign exchange bank to be sent abroad, since many operate in tax havens.
“The website will be taken down every day. The financial institutions that handle your money will start imposing restrictions. When they manage to centralize and send it to an exchange bank, if we manage to block Pix, the money won't arrive either. Then it starts to be very expensive to continue operating”, says Dudena.
Another way to curb illegal 'Bets' is via social media. In partnership with one of the organizations in the sector, the secretariat shared the list of authorized companies in order to prevent advertising by illegal betting houses.
But a mechanism is also being designed so that the media companies themselves can monitor the 'Bets', which should also apply to advertising in physical media.
Dudena also points out that, from the existence of a regulated market, it becomes less attractive for players to bet on illegal platforms, since there is no guarantee that the system is responsible or that the prize will be paid.
Report
With the 'Bets' data in hand, the secretariat intends to release a report with the main characteristics of the 'Bets' market later this year. So far, there are only estimates on the number of players and the amounts moved, such as the technical note published by the Central Bank last year, which was highly contested.
In the study, the BC estimated that gross transfers from Brazilians via Pix to betting houses were around R$20 billion per month between January and August 2024.
However, the publication by the Finance Department should take at least six months. First, at the beginning of the year, the sports calendar, which is the focus of 'Bets', is weak. In addition, the secretary explained that it is necessary to process the information to ensure greater security for disclosure.
“In the case of online games, they are already active, so there will be a little more clarity, but for us to truly understand the size of the market, in terms of the number of bettors and financial volumes, we will need a few months,” he said.
According to Dudena, new regulatory measures will also be evaluated depending on the analysis of the success or otherwise of the first rules, especially in combating over-indebtedness and gambling addiction. In addition to the requirement to register using facial recognition, bets paid for with credit cards, entry bonuses and games for children and teenagers, for example, are prohibited.
Source: O Globo
