Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) has begun offering up to 100,000 remote mental health consultations each month for people experiencing gambling-related problems.
The free service is available to bettors and their families through the Meu SUS Digital application. It provides confidential consultations lasting approximately 50 minutes and acts as an entry point to Brazil’s Psychosocial Care Network, known as RAPS.
The nationwide capacity represents a substantial expansion from a program introduced in March, when 600 monthly appointments were offered through a partnership between the Institutional Development Support Program for SUS and Hospital Sírio-Libanês.
The Ministry of Health said demand for digital mental health support led it to increase the service’s capacity.
Users access the service through a dedicated section of Meu SUS Digital and complete a self-assessment before being transferred to the Brazilian Agency for Support to the Management of SUS platform.
Following an initial consultation, a health professional may arrange further remote sessions, refer the user for in-person treatment or discharge them.
The rollout forms part of a technical cooperation agreement signed by the Ministries of Finance and Health in December 2025.
The agreement established joint prevention, harm reduction, monitoring and treatment measures after Brazil introduced its federally regulated fixed-odds betting market.
Brazil’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting regulates licensed operators under legislation requiring authorization from the Ministry of Finance.
The framework also places responsible gambling obligations on operators, including access to self-exclusion mechanisms and information about the financial and health risks associated with betting.
The health service operates alongside Brazil’s Centralized Self-Exclusion Platform. The system allows users to block their taxpayer identification number across every betting platform authorized by the federal regulator, preventing access to existing accounts, new registrations and targeted advertising.
The Ministries of Finance and Health are also working through the Brazilian Health Observatory for Electronic Betting, which monitors the effects of betting and supports the development of public health interventions.
In July, the Brazilian Senate approved legislation directing a phased share of licensed operators’ GGR to the Federal Police Fund. The contribution is scheduled to begin at 1% before reaching as much as 3% in 2028, extending the range of public programs funded by the regulated sector.
Centralized self-exclusion may be requested for a defined period or indefinitely and applies only to betting operators authorized by the federal regulator
