Brazil unveils sports betting supervisory division within the Ministry of Finance
The SPA will support Ministry of Finance and take charge of regulatory processes and responsible gaming policies
Brazil’s Ministry of Finance has unveiled a new prizes and betting secretariat (SPA) division which will serve as a regulator for the Brazilian sports betting market.
Decree No 11,907, which was published on Wednesday, 31 January, outlined the position of the SPA as a supporting body to the Ministry of Finance that will supervise the Brazilian fixed-odds sports betting market.
The SPA will be responsible for monitoring and preventing money laundering while establishing responsible gaming policies that protect vulnerable players and minors.
The Ministry of Finance added that within the SPA there will be three sub-divisions, with a total of 38 staff set to be added to that arm of the Ministry.
The first is the undersecretary for authorisation. This division will analyse requests for the free distribution of prizes through draws and contests while also looking at fixed-odd betting and other lottery models, including “sweepstakes and lotteries carried out by horseracing promoters”.
The second, the undersecretariat of monitoring and inspection division, will “supervise and develop inspection actions relating to the modalities” that are authorised by the undersecretariat for authorisation.
Finally, the undersecretary for sanctioning action division will be tasked with managing the administrative sanctioning processes, such as observing the “legal and infra-legal limits and powers provided”.
The Ministry of Finance said: “The SPA arrives to add to the structure of the [Ministry of Finance] and improve government actions, with special attention to the process of regulating the fixed-odd betting market, which covers sports betting (so-called bets) and online games, as well as to fulfil the legal duties of the Ministry of Finance regarding lotteries and commercial promotions.
“The SPA’s activities will be carried out in line with the Ministry of Sports, a department that received responsibilities relating to sporting integrity, in particular monitoring the manipulation of results in sporting events, in addition to responsibilities relating to transfers destined to athletes, clubs and administrative entities of sport.”
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva approved Law 14,790 on 29 December, which gave the green light to regulate sports betting and igaming in the country.
The Ministry of Finance is in the process of issuing the final regulatory decrees for the sector to be formally regulated.
EGR Intel
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