More than 5 million Brazilians are currently barred from accessing licensed betting platforms, said Finance Minister Dario Durigan this Thursday, the 13th.
According to Durigan, 1.2 million people voluntarily opted into self-exclusion through the centralized platform managed by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), which allows users to block their own access to all authorized betting sites with a single request.
Another 800,000 people were barred from betting after joining the government’s debt renegotiation program, Desenrola.
For participants who had active betting accounts, the program establishes a six-month block on access to the platforms.
Beneficiaries of Bolsa Família and the Continuous Cash Benefit (BPC), more than 3 million people, are also barred from registering with licensed operators.
“We have reached this total of more than five million people barred, blocked, excluded from gambling in Brazil, as part of our commitment to treat bets the way we treat cigarettes, discouraging gambling in the country,” said Durigan, according to Agência Brasil.
The minister also confirmed two enforcement operations carried out on Wednesday with support from the SPA.
One targeted an unlicensed operator. The other involved a company that had received authorization from the Ministry of Finance, but had its license suspended through a precautionary measure during a compliance investigation.
According to Durigan, the operations involved information sharing between government agencies and police forces and investigated suspicions of money laundering and asset concealment.
Finance Ministry releases licensing documents
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance began publishing the documentation that supported its decisions to license authorized operators. More than 2,000 pages, covering 85 licensed platforms, have already been made available.
The material includes technical assessments of companies’ legal eligibility, background checks on controlling shareholders and administrators, analyses of the origin of funds, and anti-money laundering measures.
The ministry stated that new information will be released gradually, excluding personal data and information protected by confidentiality rules.