Betting market: SENACON decision suspends advertising for sign-up bonuses or aimed at minors

Last Tuesday, Brazil’s National Consumer Secretariat (“SENACON”) ruled on Administrative Proceeding No. 08012.002373/2024-73, ordering betting operators to immediately suspend any advertising related to sign-up bonuses or aimed at children and adolescents.

On November 01, 2024, SENACON requested certain betting operators to report on sign-up bonus offers and measures to protect underage players and promote responsible betting within their platforms, among other matters.

According to the technical note that substantiated the decision, the betting operators claimed that the ban on sign-up bonuses would only enter into force as of January 2025, given the compliance deadline established in Article 9 of the new Betting Law (Law No. 14,790/23).

SENACON, however, argued that this interpretation is unreasonable and goes against all basic rules of legal hermeneutics. As such, SENACON ordered all state and national authorized fixed-odds betting operators (listed by the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting) to:

• Suspend any advertising in Brazil relating to advance bonuses or advantages, even if only for promoting, divulging, or marketing betting services;
• Suspend all fixed-odds betting advertising aimed at children and adolescents in Brazil; and
• Submit within 20 days a transparency report listing measures taken to comply with these suspensions.

Failure to comply with any of these suspensions will result in a daily fine of BRL 50,000 until the betting operators fully comply with the measures.

Demarest’s Dispute Resolution and Public and Regulatory Law teams are monitoring the matter and remain available to provide any necessary clarifications.