TCU warns Brazilian betting house oversight insufficient
The Union Court of Accounts (TCU) warned that the current structure of the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) is insufficient to adequately oversee the online betting market in Brazil, especially regarding the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to the oversight body, the small number of officials and the lack of technological tools create a scenario of regulatory vulnerability in a sector that has been growing rapidly since the regulation came into effect in January of this year.
According to the report prepared under the leadership of Minister Jhonatan de Jesus, the SPA currently has only three staff members dedicated to monitoring financial crime prevention practices in the betting market, a staffing level considered clearly insufficient given the magnitude and complexity of the activity.
The TCU also pointed out that the General Coordination of Money Laundering and Other Crimes Monitoring (CGLD) fails to minimally meet the sector’s demands. Added to this is a deficit of technological and budgetary resources, identified as one of the most critical points of the current regulatory structure.
The audit further highlighted that the SPA still lacks analytical tools capable of tracking financial flows or monitoring bettors’ behavior to detect suspicious patterns. In practice, much of the verifications are carried out based on declarative information, which, according to the court, leaves room for illicit practices.
In this scenario, the TCU determined that the Ministry of Finance must, within a period of up to 120 days, provide the human, technological, and budgetary resources necessary for the SPA to perform its functions adequately and proportionally to the sector’s risk. It also demanded the preparation of operational manuals to guide the work of the oversight teams.
For the court, the structural weakness of the secretariat contrasts with the current moment of the market, in which operators, bettors, and intermediaries move large volumes of resources daily, requiring more robust and permanent supervision.
Response from the Ministry of Finance
In an official statement, the SPA reported that it received the TCU’s determination and is analyzing the report’s content to address the recommendations in the best possible way. The secretariat indicated that, since its creation in 2024, it has been working on the gradual strengthening of its personnel and technology structure.
It also noted that the court’s observations will be considered in defining future priorities and that specific analytical tools for money laundering prevention are currently being developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security’s Red Lab, through a Technical Cooperation Agreement.
Tags: Brasil, online betting Brazil, betting oversight Brazil, Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, SPA