70% of authorized gambling companies in Brazil opened in 2024, according to survey

Of the 101 fixed-odds betting companies authorized by the Ministry of Finance to operate nationwide in Brazil, 70 were incorporated in 2024. Of these, 54 obtained their CNPJ in the second half of the year, many of them just days before the September deadline to apply for authorization.

The data, obtained from the Receita Federal system, reveal an accelerated regularization movement in the sector, driven by the recent regulation, as shown in a report by O Globo.

Currently, the official list of the Ministry of Finance includes 101 legal entities, responsible for 219 trademarks and Internet domains. The authorization is linked to Ordinance 1,475 of September, which defined the rules for companies to participate in the adjustment period. According to the Department of Prizes and Bets, the operators that applied for registration until the publication of the ordinance have shown interest in complying with the current legislation, with a deadline of December 31.

The adjustment debate generates controversy

However, the regularization process has raised doubts, especially regarding the deadline for compliance. Ordinance 1,475 refers to a previous one, Ordinance 827, published in May, which establishes the adaptation for companies operating in Brazil since the publication of Law 14,790, in December 2023.

This scenario has given rise to divergent interpretations, according to a report by O Globo. Some question how 70% of the companies authorized in 2024 were accepted even though they were created after the legal framework had been defined.

Parliamentarians who are part of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Gambling in the Senate have posed the hypothesis that some of these companies were already operating previously using tax havens or other CNPJs to operate.