Having had time to reflect, what is your overall view on the online betting ban in Brazil?
My overall view is that the ban, when and how it was made, is a disproportionate and extremely disruptive response to problems that should be addressed through regulation, enforcement and public policy – not by eliminating a regulated market because of political reasons. Brazil spent years building a regulatory framework, licensing operators, establishing compliance requirements and bringing the sector into the formal economy. To reverse that framework abruptly creates enormous legal uncertainty and undermines the very principle of regulatory stability that attracted investment to Brazil in the first place.
There is also a fundamental contradiction: as we all know, banning licensed operators does not eliminate betting. It simply creates more space for illegal operators, which have none of the safeguards imposed on licensed companies – no effective KYC, no responsible-gambling controls, no tax contribution and no meaningful consumer protection. And this was exactly what we saw in recent weeks. More than 40,000 illegal gambling websites are available for Brazilian customers, without any reaction from the Government that betrayed the legal operators who trusted the regulation. The regulated market has problems, and the industry must acknowledge them. But the answer should be better regulation and enforcement, not prohibition.
