A bill introduced in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies would require licensed sports betting and online casino operators to help fund gambling disorder prevention and treatment through the country's public health system.
The bill, introduced by federal deputy Ana Paula Lima, would create the Taxa de Fiscalização Sanitária sobre Apostas de Quota Fixa (TFS-Apostas), a new levy initially set at 2% of licensed operators' revenue.
Revenue from the levy would be directed to Brazil's Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) to finance prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation programs for gambling disorder.
Under the proposal, all funds collected would flow into a subaccount of the Fundo Nacional de Saúde called the Subconta de Enfrentamento ao Transtorno do Jogo, and could only be used for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation programs, along with epidemiological surveillance, data production, awareness campaigns and training for health professionals.
It would also make gambling disorder a mandatory notifiable condition for epidemiological tracking, while protecting patients' personal data.
The rate could be revised within a range of 1% to 6% based on a technical report using SUS hospitalization and outpatient care data to estimate the direct and indirect costs of treating gambling disorder.
Operators would also be required to report anonymized annual data to the Ministry of Health on the number of bettors identified as high risk for dependency, to support public health planning.
Noncompliance could trigger penalties under existing betting regulations as well as other administrative, civil or criminal sanctions.
In the bill's justification, Lima said Brazil's fixed odds betting market expanded rapidly after regulation and that the growth was accompanied by a rise in gambling disorder cases linked to anxiety, depression, debt, social isolation and family and professional conflict.
She argued that existing revenue earmarks for betting activity, which already fund areas including education, public security and sports, remain insufficient to cover health-related costs, and that measures such as the centralized self-exclusion platform address prevention but not treatment financing.
If approved, the charge would not take effect immediately. The bill sets its financial effects to begin on the first day of the fiscal year following the law's publication, with a minimum 90-day period between publication and enforcement.
The bill follows the launch of Brazil's Health Ministry's national campaign on the risks of online betting, which promotes free mental health support through the SUS
