Brazil's Ministry of Finance has just introduced new regulations on gambling advertisements, receiving its first public response from the industry. The National Association of Gambling and Lotteries issued a statement on Thursday, clearly supporting the new rules—but this "support" was followed by a clear "but": if the government does not simultaneously strengthen enforcement against illegal platforms' advertisements, and only restricts licensed operators, it is essentially punishing those who comply while allowing violators to continue eroding the market. ANJL's statement directly targets those unlicensed platforms that "operate without federal authorization, evade taxes, disregard advertising rules, lack anti-money laundering mechanisms, allow minors to access, and do not curb compulsive gambling." PASA's official website noted that the core demand of this statement can be summarized in one sentence: Compliant parties are willing to accept stricter rules, but only if the enforcement applies to everyone.
Attitude of licensed operators: Rules can be strict, but regulatory focus should not only be on compliant parties
ANJL in its statement expressed clear support for the new advertising rules soon to be officially published in the Federal Official Gazette by the Ministry of Finance, advocating "strict adherence to these regulations under the premise that it does not affect the normal operations of legally operating enterprises under the supervision of the Secretariat of Gambling and Awards." However, the real focus of the statement follows with a warning—ANJL emphasizes that the announced measures "must be accompanied by enhanced supervision and strict action against advertisements of illegal platforms."
The portrait of these illegal platforms is quite specifically outlined in the statement: operating without federal authorization, not paying taxes, not adhering to advertising rules, lacking anti-money laundering mechanisms, allowing minors to access gambling sites, and not curbing compulsive gambling. Under this contrasting style, the stricter the rules for licensed operators, the greater the competitive advantage of illegal platforms—compliance costs push up the customer acquisition price for licensed parties, while completely non-compliant gray players continue to aggressively snatch customers with their advertisements.
Illegal advertising is not just a tax evasion issue, it is destroying the entire industry's licensing
ANJL's statement also mentioned a concern deeper than economic loss: non-compliant advertising is damaging the entire industry's public image. "Advertising activities that do not comply with current regulations damage the industry's image and should be appropriately handled by the competent authorities." The significance of this stance is that ANJL proactively places "the industry's reputation risk" on the table—at a critical transformation period from gray to regulated market, every instance of unlicensed platform's non-compliant advertising depletes the limited trust balance of regulatory bodies and the public towards the legal gambling industry.
From the perspective of the industry association, ANJL has equated "sustainable market" with "clear rules covering all aspects of operations." The support for the Ministry of Finance's new regulations is positioned as "another step towards this goal." PASA's official website believes that ANJL's statement essentially responds to a classic dilemma facing all emerging regulated gambling markets—regulation first ties the hands and feet of compliant players, but law enforcement has not yet caught up with the pace of clearing gray players. The response from Brazil's Ministry of Finance is already reflected in those numbers: 56,000 sites taken down, nearly a thousand influencer accounts removed. ANJL's attitude is also clear: these numbers indicate the right direction, but not fast enough—because every additional day that illegal platforms survive, the competitive advantage of compliant players is further eroded.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
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PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
