Brazil is cracking down on online betting operators and crypto payments.
The Brazilian government is cracking down on advertising from online betting companies, with strict new advertising rules stipulating that the operators must include health warnings relating to addiction risks and potential financial loss in each ad.
The new regulations will also prohibit any advertising claims that suggest that gambling is a path to “easy money” or use expert endorsements to persuade potential customers.
Under these new rules, operators will also be explicitly banned from accepting crypto currency or any forms of virtual assets for transactions, G1 reports.
These will take effect later on this month, and will apply to licensed operators and third-party advertisers – with every betting ad in Brazil now required to show a health warning similar to what is shown on cigarette packages.
The warnings will include phrases such as:
- Betting is not an investment.
- Betting makes you lose money.
- Betting can cause addiction.
“We are imposing restrictions on betting advertisements in the country,” said Minister of Finance Dario Durigan.
“I don’t need to state – as it goes without saying – that we have zero tolerance for illegal operators. Therefore, illegal betting operations are not authorised in any way, and neither advertisers nor media outlets are permitted to run any advertising involving a company not authorised to operate in the market.”
The maximum fine for any breaches of these new rules is said to be R$14m (around £2m) – but non-compliance is likely to land the operator with a fine of 20% of its annual revenue and an 180 day suspension, and even a revocation of its licence.
The Minister revealed that over 56,000 sites have already been taken down, as well as almost a thousand influencer profiles, but that authorised operators have been cooperating and helping to report illegal sites.
