The Brazilian Government is re-activating the online lottery. The recent signing of the Cooperation Agreement No. 4/2025 by the Secretariat for Awards and Lottery (SPA/MA) under the Ministry of Finance of Brazil, the National Telecommunications Agency and the Association of Legal Gaming Operators of Brazil (ANJL) further strengthens the monitoring and blocking of illegal gaming sites operating in Brazil.
The signing of the agreement on 25 September marked a new phase of collaboration between regulators, telecommunications regulators and the compliance sports lottery industry. This was seen as an important link in the implementation of the Brazilian legal framework for a fixed-rate lottery, the maintenance of market order and the protection of consumer rights. Under the terms of the agreement, ANJL will take the lead in the construction of a technical laboratory that will function as one on-line and off-line, dedicated to detecting and facilitating the blocking of illegal gaming platforms. ANJL represents the lottery company authorized to operate legally in Brazil, which will be provided with technical support to counter unfair competition on the market caused by illegal websites. In contrast to the previous practice of relying mainly on web site lists for closure, the new laboratory will be upgraded in a comprehensive manner in terms of technical capacity. The team will not only monitor the site’s address, but will also build a more systematic identification model by analysing site architecture features, Internet traffic paths and network loopholes commonly used by illegal operators, as well as the practice of frequent changes to illegal platforms’ domain names, “deception cats”. This cooperation is an extension and deepening of the awards and the existing technical cooperation mechanisms of the Secretariat of Lottery and the National Telecommunications Agency. Under the existing cooperation arrangements, the parties have established a fast-track information channel to reduce the time between the detection of problems and the issuance of a blockade order.
The data show that, since October last year, SSPA has officially submitted to the National Telecommunications Agency a request for a blockade of some 18,000 illegal gaming sites. This figure reflects both intuitively the magnitude of the problem and the increasing enforcement efforts by Brazilian regulators. With the addition of ANJL and its technical laboratories, the relevant agencies expect that the illegal website blocking process will be further accelerated and that it will achieve a significant improvement in the technical basis, transparency and professionalism of the process. Under the cooperation agreement and work plan, future enforcement operations will rely more on prior technical analysis and proactive monitoring than on reactive responses based solely on complaints or leads. The regulator stressed that, by extracting and locking out “fingerprint features” in the technical structure of illegal platforms, once the platforms “returned” with a new domain name, the systems could achieve rapid identification and re-interception, thus significantly reducing the time window for “return to the market”. The experts noted that such a paradigm shift from “post-include” to “pre-warning, proactive” would significantly enhance overall regulatory capacity, shorten the time lag between detection and closure, reduce the space for interference by illegal operators in digital ecology and help to increase consumer confidence. At the same time, regulators cautioned that illegal gaming platforms were not only isolated from the regulatory system and were not subject to related taxes and duties, but also generally lacked mechanisms for consumer protection, such as financial security, dispute resolution, etc. A long-standing grey operation would put unfair competitive pressure on compliance enterprises and erode the credibility of the entire industry.
The award, in collaboration with the Secretariat of Lottery, the National Telecommunications Agency and the Brazilian Association of Legitimate Lottery Operators in the framework of this agreement, is seen as a clear signal that Brazil will “resolutely defend the legitimate lottery market”. The efforts of the various forces are working together under a common goal, namely, to ensure that the gaming activities are conducted in an open and well-regulated manner within the legal framework. It is widely accepted by industry that the agreement means that Brazilian lottery regulation has moved from the institution-building phase to a new phase of proactive regulation and fine-tuning of uncharted enforcement. Through the integration of “triple” regulatory powers, communications technology and industry experience, Brazil is accelerating the construction of a more mature and resilient regulatory system. As technological means escalate, it will become evident that it will be more difficult for illegal operators to sustain contact with domestic consumers in Brazil. At the same time, compliance operators and ordinary players are expected to engage in lottery activities in a safer, fair and transparent market environment.