Mariana Piccoli Lins Cavalcanti has been named Brazil's new Undersecretary of Sanctioning Action at the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), taking over the unit responsible for enforcing sanctions against fixed-odds betting operators.
The timing, given promises of increased Brazilian regulation, is important.
What does a sanctions role at the SPA actually involve?
The Undersecretariat of Sanctioning Action (SAS) was created alongside the SPA itself, under Decree 11,907 of January 31, 2024.
Its job is essentially to be the sector's first-instance judge and jury: ruling on administrative sanctioning proceedings, deciding whether to apply penalties or dismiss cases when no irregularity is found, screening appeals before they go to senior authorities and proposing compromise agreements at any point before a first-instance decision.
The legal scaffolding for all this sits in SPA/MF Ordinance 1,233/2024, which cover infractions, procedural rules, penalties and compromise terms.
Day to day, the work runs through the General Coordination of Sanctioning Action, which handles enforcement across fixed-odds betting, other lottery formats and commercial promotions alike.
Who is Mariana Piccoli Lins Cavalcanti?
Cavalcanti now leads that operation, replacing Raiana Falcão Ferreira, who left in early September. Cavalcanti is a career federal civil servant in the Public Policy and Government Management Specialists track, sworn in back in 2012.
She holds a Master's in Economics from the Brazilian Institute of Teaching, Development and Research, a postgraduate qualification in competition law from Fundação Getúlio Vargas and undergraduate degrees in economics from the University of Brasília and law from Centro Universitário de Brasília.
Before this appointment, she spent the past year as an advisor in the National Data Infrastructure Department at the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, digital government infrastructure rather than betting, a background that says as much about the SPA's current priorities in data, monitoring and traceability as it does about her personally.
A reshuffle with a pattern
Cavalcanti's arrival closes a vacancy that opened as part of a broader shake-up at SPA. In August, the Ministry replaced Daniela Olímpio de Oliveira at the Authorizations Undersecretariat with Fernanda Villela Oliveira, previously the general coordinator for commercial promotions oversight.
Both Olímpio and Falcão had been hired in early 2024 under then-SPA Chief José Francisco Manssur and stayed on through Régis Dudena's leadership, before Daniele Correa Cardoso took over the SPA in March 2026.
Falcão, for her part, said her tenure focused on "improving the sanctioning regime," stressing that sanctioning "isn't just about punishment" but also serves an "educational and preventive function," a framing that reads almost like a mission statement for whoever succeeds her.
Why the timing is significant
Cavalcanti steps into the sanctions chair a month before Brazil's presidential election, at a moment when the sector's political footing is unusually shaky.
Four Brazilian presidential candidates have proposed banning betting platforms outright, and only one has detailed how the government would replace the roughly BR12.2bn ($2.4bn) in tax revenue betting generated in 2025.
A further four candidates skipped the issue in their formal platforms, though two weighed in separately, one backing a ban, another pushing for higher taxes instead. Only one candidate has proposed a specific ban on online casino advertising.
That backdrop gives the sanctioning arm's enforcement record an outsized political weight right now. Operators took in BR221bn in deposits in 2025, with BR36.9bn landing as operator revenue and the rest going to prizes and bonuses, the Finance Ministry's first-ever release of that figure.
Whether the sanctioning arm is seen as tough or toothless in the coming months could well shape how the next administration, whoever wins, decides to treat the industry.
So this appointment can be considered routine and does not necessitate increased restrictions. But it does prime the SPA in case a new regime requires immediate enforcement.
The Federal Government now blocks more than 5 million Brazilians from betting on online platforms, with 1.2 million having opted in through the self-exclusion tool
