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Tech giants Meta, TikTok and Google have reportedly been warned by Brazil’s Ministry of Finance against breaking new sports-betting advertising regulations after failing to apply over-18 labels on their platforms.
A new law to regulate sports betting and online casino games was not signed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva until December 30, but advertising restrictions had been introduced via a Ministry of Finance ordinance in late October under an earlier emergency measure and a law on fixed-odds betting from 2018.
Article 21 of Ordinance 1.330 states that all “communication, advertising and marketing actions for fixed-odd betting lottery are prohibited [where they] do not contain an age restriction warning, embodied in an ‘18+’ symbol or ‘prohibited for under 18s’ warning”.
According to Brazilian investigative journalism platform Núcleo Jornalismo, which accessed the warnings via Brazil's Freedom of Information Act, the technology platforms met with the finance ministry on several occasions to be briefed on standards established by the ordinance.
In the warning, the Ministry of Finance stated that “the vast majority of broadcast media have not presented an age restriction notice and clause warning, among other irregularities”.
Rafael Marchetti Marcondes, chief legal officer for fantasy sports operator Rei do Pitaco, said the ministry's recent actions are “a warning in the sense that, if platforms don’t change their policies, next time they may be punished by the public authorities”.
This is the case “especially now, with the publication of Law 14.790/23, that foresees sanctions to be enforced against those that don’t observe current rules”, he said.
Articles 16 and 17 of the newly promulgated sports-betting and online gaming law reinforce the ordinance via various statutory restrictions, with the Ministry of Finance granted powers to set specific regulations and direct advertisers and online application services to remove irregular ads.
The law and ordinance both defer to the unique nature of Brazilian advertising regulation, which is largely a self-governed environment under the Brazilian Advertising Self-Regulation Council (CONAR).
CONAR is a membership body with no legal authority, but members can be taken to court for violating self-regulatory codes.
On Friday (December 29), CONAR published a new annex to its code of conduct for the application of new guidelines to betting ads.
The guidelines, which are modelled on those of the UK, Australia and other foreign markets, require operators to include age and responsible gaming warnings in all advertising, and avoid irresponsible marketing.
The CONAR guidelines will be in force from January 29.
Luiz Felipe Maia, a gambling industry expert and partner with the Maia Yoshiyasu law firm, told Vixio GamblingCompliance that because of CONAR's ability to set self-regulatory standards, “I think it's very likely we’ll see the law’s advertising rules come into effect before the others”.
Additional reporting by James Kilsby.
