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Barely more than a year after approving a federal law to regulate online gambling, Brazil’s Senate is now considering whether to restrict or ban advertising and impose further limits on newly licensed operators.

The Senate’s Committee on Sports is due to hold a second public hearing on gambling advertising on Wednesday (April 23), as senators consider two separate bills to either prohibit all ads for online betting or prevent athletes and celebrities from appearing in them.

The potential advertising limits are moving forward in parallel to a special commission on online betting established in the Senate in November. The commission has since held a dozen hearings to review Brazil’s nascent regulatory regime and consider tightening rules related to marketing, affordability and other areas.

The Senate parliamentary investigation commission (or CPI) is supposed to conclude its work by April 30.

However, the CPI’s chairman confirmed last week that he had asked the Senate president to extend its mandate to account for time lost due to congressional recesses, and to ensure the commission “comes up with a report that is in the interests of Brazilian society”.

Whether the Senate investigation will lead to regulatory changes is uncertain, with CPIs having a reputation in Brazil as much for political grandstanding as policymaking.

Still, an extension of the CPI would ensure the continuation of what has so far been an uncomfortable forum for a Brazilian online gambling industry that is still adjusting to a new regulatory regime.

Public hearings of the Senate CPI have seen Brazilian government officials deliver targeted messages to the industry, including the head of the Federal Revenue Service pressing for back taxes on operator activities in the formerly unregulated market. 

Chief officials at Brazil’s telecoms regulator ANATEL and the Brazilian Central Bank also have used the CPI to temper expectations as to their enforcement authority to block illegal websites and to prevent financial institutions from processing payments for offshore operators.

As a result of the unbalanced media portrayal of the sector, we have many congressional efforts to insert themselves in this regulatory conversation in a way that would be very, very detrimental.

The CPI’s 13th public meeting later today is set to feature testimony from an Alagoas state police official who has led an investigation into illegal betting sites promoted by social media influencers.

But a recent focus of the panel has been responsible gambling, with the CPI taking testimony from psychiatrists and recovering addicts.

The senator charged with leading the CPI’s investigation recently described problem gambling in Brazil as a “pandemic”.

“We are here to make amends and we need to legislate to minimise the risks and damage of this activity,” Senator Soraya Thronicke, the CPI’s rapporteur, said at a March 25 hearing.

Once the Senate commission concludes its public investigations, the next step will be for Thronicke to publish a detailed report that will include a series of policy recommendations and legislative proposals.

The report will not in itself trigger any policy changes, with the next moves dependent on broader political will to move forward.

Assuming the full commission of 11 senators approves the report, its legislative recommendations will need to be submitted as one or a series of bills subject to approval by the full Senate and then by the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.

Advertising In Focus

Senators are not waiting for the conclusion of the CPI on online betting before reconsidering rules related to advertising, however.

At the Senate sports committee’s second public hearing on the issue on Wednesday, senators will hear testimony from officials with Brazilian advertising standards body CONAR, broadcasting association ABERT, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), leading operator Betano and betting industry association IBJR, among other witnesses.

The sports committee is still in the early stages of reviewing two contrasting bills: to ban all advertising or marketing of online betting; and to prohibit any sports teams, current or former athletes, sports commentators or any other celebrities from being involved in the promotion of operators.

Further bills to restrict gambling advertising are also pending before other Senate committees, including one measure introduced last September by the leader of President Lula’s party in Congress that would similarly prohibit all ads.

At an initial public hearing on April 9, members of the sports committee were warned by industry representatives that onerous restrictions on advertising would disadvantage licensed operators relative to illegal sites still active in Brazil.

The legal director of industry trade group ANJL noted that Italy is now reconsidering its blanket ban on gambling advertising, while the CEO of Superbet in Brazil cautioned against drawing comparisons with ad restrictions in place in the UK and Spain, as those are highly mature markets whereas Brazil’s regulatory regime has only been effective for some 90 days.

The head of responsible gambling policy for Brazil’s federal gambling authority, the Secretariat for Prizes and Bets (SPA), also highlighted how Brazilian law already “contains a series of restrictions” to prevent irresponsible advertising.

Still, the testimony did not placate all committee members.

The senator assigned as rapporteur to review the two pending bills on behalf of the sports committee said he does not intend to endorse an outright ban on advertising or sponsorships.

But Senator Carlos Portinho said the need for some form of congressional action was “urgent and immediate”, and he will likely recommend at least a watershed to ban advertising other than between 9pm or 10pm at night and 6am in the morning. 

Although the SPA’s formal regulations on advertising have only been effective for a few months, self-regulatory standards of CONAR specific to betting have been in place since the start of 2024.

“After a year, the situation has gotten worse,” Portinho said. “The advertising is pervasive; the advertising is oftentimes being directed at those who are not even the target audience, but young people or children; and the advertising is predatory.”

Senate Holds The Cards On Gambling Policy

If it appears reactionary that the Senate is considering additional restrictions so soon after the launch of Brazil’s regulated market, then it is worth considering that the upper house was not on the same page as the Chamber of Deputies when it came to defining the regulatory regime.

The Senate underlined how it was generally less friendly to gambling than the lower house when it attempted to limit Brazil’s regulated market strictly to sports betting and not allow online casino games, only for that amendment to be overruled by the Chamber of Deputies. 

Advertising and the CPI on online betting are far from the only areas where the Senate may steer Brazilian gambling policy over the course of 2025. 

In addition:

• A broad bill to authorise land-based casinos and bingo halls is eligible for a final vote on the Senate floor after being passed by the Chamber of Deputies in early 2022. The bill is supported by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre but faces fierce opposition from more conservative senators.
• The Senate concluded a second CPI last month concerning match-fixing and sports integrity. Senators may now consider the commission's specific legislative recommendations that include prohibiting any bets on “isolated events” such as yellow cards, and requiring betting operators to display pop-up warnings related to responsible gambling.
• Along with the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate will this year determine the rate of a new selective tax for fixed-odds bets on sports and casino games. The new tax on supposedly harmful products was approved as part of a broader tax-reform plan last year, but the rate and how exactly the tax will be applied were not established under that initial law.

The central policymaking role still being played by Congress underscores the importance of the industry moving proactively to educate federal lawmakers, rather than relying upon the SPA to advocate on its behalf, according to one Brazilian public affairs expert.

The SPA has a relatively small staff and is just one of many agencies under the Ministry of Finance that must coordinate with Congress on multiple policy priorities relating to finance and the national budget, said Michael López Stewart of Arko Advice in Brasilia.

Meanwhile, the industry is facing a situation in which some members of Congress may be “taking advantage of a very negative media landscape, trying to accrue political capital at the expense of the sector”.

“The relationship between congressional leaders and lawmakers, and the regulators ... there’s definitely room for improvement and dialogue and more proactivity, but the same can be said for the [online gambling] sector, and the sector providing a unified voice with positive arguments for the development of the sector,” Stewart said during a webinar hosted last month by law firm Mattos Filho.

“Whether we’re talking about tax revenue, job generation, technological advancement, the priorities in terms of AML and responsible gaming, the investments that come from the sector, these are all very important arguments that I think do not appear enough in dialogue in the National Congress. 

“And as a result of that and as a result of the unbalanced media portrayal of the sector, we have many congressional efforts to insert themselves in this regulatory conversation in a way that would be very, very detrimental to the sector.”