The bill, authored by Senator Styvenson Valentim, would amend Article 33 of Law No 13,756/2018, which brought forward regulation for fixed-odds sports betting in Brazil. Article 33 would ban gambling ads across all channels and mediums.
Valentim’s justification for the ban on gambling ads relates to the belief that companies are disregarding restrictions on marketing, particularly towards younger people.
“This proposal is justified in view of the sudden change in the profile of bettors, which is now mostly made up of young people, who have at their disposal, 24 hours a day, with just one click, the possibility of placing bets without any barrier to impulsive behaviour,” Valentim said.
The CEsp will analyse the bill in a meeting starting at 10.30 local time on Wednesday. The proposal will then be sent to the Communication and Digital Law Commission (CCDD), which will decide whether to progress with the bill.
Brazil has already taken steps to restrict advertising.
On 6 December the regulator, the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, immediately implemented a number of advertising measures initially intended to come in from the legal market launch date of 1 January 2025.
These included a ban on advertising that has children or adolescents as a target audience, as well as via channels where minors make up the majority of their audience.
Additionally, all ads were mandated to include an ’18+’ symbol or a message reading “prohibited for people under 18”.
Bill supported by Portinho
Senator Carlos Portinho, who previously unsuccessfully tried to exclude igaming from the current betting laws, has thrown his support behind Valentim’s proposal. In December he said the “bill deserved to prosper”.
Portinho also made a number of amendments, including the introduction of a ban on betting ads on the radio between the hours of 10pm and 6am, as well as a blanket ban on marketing in printed or electronic media in Brazil.
Additionally, Portinho amended the bill to ban the use of athletes or other public figures in such advertising, as well as prohibiting the use of text messages or mobile notifications to promote gambling.
“The rampant advertising in this sector leads the audience to believe that, with a stroke of luck, they will achieve financial independence, when reality has shown the even more pronounced impoverishment of the most economically vulnerable segments of the population,” Portinho stated.
