Minister Boulos: intensify criticism against online betting, calls
The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil, Guilherme Boulos, once again targeted online betting companies and called for their total prohibition in the country. During an interview on the Bom dia, Ministro program, the official stated that betting companies are funding a large number of social media profiles used to attack the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in one of the harshest accusations made so far by a member of the Executive against the regulated sector.
Boulos maintained that the platforms would be linked to recent police operations and would also support an extensive universe of accounts dedicated to political disinformation. According to the minister, the president is fully aware that the current regulation, in operation since January of this year, has not resolved the problems associated with online betting activity, and therefore he advocated for the integral prohibition of the segment.
The official went further, assuring that the Executive and Legislative must find a way to end what he called the "betting spree" in Brazil. In his view, the platforms would be consuming workers' free time and ruining families with gambling-related debts, an argument that has been repeated since Lula's May 1st speech announcing the Novo Desenrola Brasil.
Boulos' statements deepen the political pressure on a sector that is paying licenses, taxes, and contributions to the responsible gambling system just five months after the start of the federal regime. The official strategy combines messages of prohibition with measures such as blocking CPF numbers for betting for one year for those who join Desenrola, which has already generated strong criticism from ANJL and other entities in the regulated sector.
The government's approach ignores, according to the industry, that illegal offerings continue to capture most of the betting demand not channeled to authorized operators. Data from Anatel and sector consultants indicate that thousands of clandestine sites remain accessible from Brazil, many without a tax domicile in the country and with low effective blocking capacity, which casts doubt on the real effectiveness of restrictions applied only to the 84 regularized companies.
For Latin America, where Brazil represents the largest and most dynamic regulated market, the radicalization of the official discourse against betting is a warning sign. Operators and providers who have invested millions in compliance, technical integrations, and responsible gambling campaigns are watching with concern as political support for the regulatory model erodes, at a key moment when other countries in the region, such as Peru, Chile, and Argentina, are defining or expanding their own legal frameworks.
Tags: Brazil, Brazil gambling regulation, Brazil gambling ban, Guilherme Boulos