A working group of consumer protection bodies in Espírito Santo has proposed to Brazil's Finance Ministry that betting platforms be required to display the probability of losing before a bet is confirmed.
The Integrated Consumer Defense Center of Espírito Santo (CINDEC) argues betting platforms practice misleading advertising by omission, failing to disclose data essential to a consumer's decision.
"Everything essential to a consumer's choice has to be disclosed. If a supplier omits information indispensable to that decision, that advertising is misleading by omission," said prosecutor Sandra Lengruber da Silva, who coordinates the state prosecutor's office unit for over-indebted consumers.
The proposal rests on three requirements: a standardized government-regulated formula for calculating loss probability based on a platform's own odds; a "counterbalance" rule requiring loss probability to carry the same visual prominence, size and color as the advertised prize; and a mandatory confirmation warning for any bet where calculated loss probability exceeds 80%.
As an example, the group cited a bet offering 17-to-1 odds, which conceals a roughly 94% chance of losing.
The Finance Ministry confirmed the regulator Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) received the proposal.
Federal auditors ask whether bets should exist at all
In a separate move, the Federal Court of Accounts' prosecutor's office filed a request asking the TCU to investigate the impact of fixed-odds betting on public spending in health, social assistance and consumer protection.
The inquiry would also examine household debt and income, tax collection and potential revenue evasion, money laundering prevention, and the effectiveness of state oversight of betting platforms.
"Given the demonstrated harms and concrete impacts on public health, family budgets, the protection of children and adolescents, social assistance, tax collection and money laundering prevention, it becomes necessary to ask whether the State can continue permitting, and directly or indirectly encouraging, the operation of bets," said Deputy Prosecutor-General Lucas Furtado.
Furtado also noted the Supreme Court is separately reviewing constitutional challenges to the 2018 law that exempted fixed-odds betting from Brazil's general prohibition on gambling, but stressed the TCU request isn't seeking a constitutionality ruling.
More than 1 million Brazilians have now requested self-exclusion from regulated online betting sites and apps, according to data released by the Ministry of Health
