IBIA urges Brazil’s Congress to reconsider proposed online gambling ban

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has asked Brazil's Congress to reconsider a provisional measure that would ban online betting and gaming, according to a report on 14 October. The association said it had carried out a study of the consequences for sports integrity, consumers and the regulated market, and called for a risk and impact assessment, including an open dialogue with the sector.

The IBIA said the regulated market in Brazil has been open for less than two years and has more than 80 operators. It said a ban risks undoing progress in consumer protection, monitoring of betting activity and safeguarding of sports integrity, and could push consumers towards the illegal market while weakening the mechanisms designed to detect and prevent match-fixing.

On sport, the association said licensed operators are required to monitor suspicious bets, report concerns and work with national or international integrity monitoring organisations. It said this activity allows suspicious betting patterns to be identified, and that without an authorised market such information would be harder to obtain, making potential manipulation harder to detect and investigate.

Citing estimates from H2 Gambling Capital, the IBIA said that without a legal alternative about 60% of activity currently covered by the regulated Brazilian market, equivalent to about €4.45bn, could move to unlicensed operators, potentially raising the volume of the illegal market to €7.48bn. It said the consequences would not be limited to a loss of tax revenue, and that players would be betting on platforms without identity or financial protections.

On sports integrity data, the IBIA said it reported 25 alerts on suspicious bets in 2025, the first full year of activity of the regulated market, against an annual average of 11 between 2021 and 2024. It said the increase was consistent with better detection and reporting of suspicious patterns, and that a lower number after a ban would not necessarily mean fewer suspicious bets but rather less information about them.

The association said a ban would not remove betting integrity risks but make them harder to detect, investigate and address. It said the current integrity framework, including monitoring of suspicious bets, reporting and cooperation with authorities, should be preserved; enforcement should focus on unlicensed operators; and harms linked to problem gambling should be addressed through targeted measures within the regulated market. It said the priority should be to strengthen the protections offered by the regulated market rather than dismantle the regulatory framework that makes them possible.