The Brazilian betting sector has just received a huge warning sign. The conviction, even in the first instance, involving an important regulated operator has enormous symbolic weight and should serve as a lesson to the entire segment. It reveals something that the industry already knew, but which, apparently, had not yet been dealt with with due clarity. At least part of the Judiciary is paying attention. The regulator is paying attention. Society is very attentive. And Responsible Gaming went from being a perfume to becoming, once and for all, the industry’s maturity thermometer.
The question that remains in the air is simple and uncomfortable. Who will lead the line? And here there is an inevitable duality. Who will lead the line of convictions? And who will lead the queue? Responsible Gaming real, structured, predictive and with real attention to the behavior of bettors?
The case brought a direct and documented message. This is not about interpretation. It is written in the sentence itself. Law 14,790 already determined that operators must “implement responsible gaming policies, with effective tools to limit betting, identify patterns of compulsive behavior and protect players at risk”. MF Ordinance number 827 of 2024 reinforces this obligation by stating that platforms “must continuously monitor betting patterns” and “adopt preventive measures in the face of signs of typical gambling behavior”.
It is impossible to treat this as optional. It is impossible to claim ignorance. It is impossible to do the minimum just to maintain a regulatory presence. It is impossible to continue ending TV commercials saying “gamble responsibly” and believe that this is enough. It’s in the law. It’s at the entrance. It’s in the sentence. And it’s in the words of the regulator himself. In a recent interview, the secretary of the SPA, Régis Dudena, was explicit in stating that monitoring is a direct obligation of the operators and that the government expects effective, continuous and preventive mechanisms to protect bettors.
And it was precisely this reading that supported the bookmaker’s condemnation. The decision itself points to the existence of a “serious defect in the provision of the service by the defendant, consisting of the omission of the legal duty of monitoring and preventive intervention”. The problem was not the player betting. The problem was that the platform failed to monitor and neglected its responsibility established by law and ordinances.
And this should serve to alert all operators who chose to operate legally. It’s not enough to do the minimum. You need to be one step ahead. Not tomorrow. Yesterday.
Today, any operator knows that user behavior does not fit within a single home. Players have multiple accounts, switch between platforms, respond to odds, balances, bonuses and boosts. The risk appears as a whole and not in the exclusive perspective of what happens “in its territory”. And as long as each company only looks at its own backyard and often superficially, the entire sector will remain vulnerable. The Judiciary demonstrated that it is beginning to see this point. And when the Judiciary sees it, it charges. And it’s expensive.
Therefore the question is inevitable. Who will lead the line of convictions? Who will be the next name to make headlines? Who will carry the same narrative that falls on this operator today? What initiatives will be implemented to mitigate the risks that grew dramatically with this decision?
But there is another question, this one strategic. Who will really lead the Responsible Gaming queue? Who will lead instead of react? Who will show that they understood the message? Who will adopt predictive, independent and cross-operator models? Who will assume that protecting the player is not philanthropy? It’s business protection. It’s brand protection. It’s cash protection. It’s reputation protection. It is protection of one’s own existence.
The sector can insist on the minimum package and convince itself that it complies with the law. You can continue betting on timid policies and automatic banners that say nothing about the real behavior of players. Or you can recognize that responsibility cannot be improvised. Structure yourself. Invest. Surrender. The market already has solutions designed exactly for this. It’s about getting out of inertia and practicing Responsible Gaming. With letters MAI-Ú-SCULAS.
The industry is at a turning point. Either pull the right line or be dragged into the wrong one. And trust is lost only once. The case in question is a clear warning. The answer is up to each operator. And from everyone at the same time. And those who do the right thing also need to charge those who don’t.
Thiago Iusim founded Betshield Responsible Gaming after more than 20 years in highly regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol. Betshield was born to protect the betting industry by protecting, with advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning, its most valuable asset: the bettor.
Hamilton Noble specializes in Games and Lotteries and has been operating in the market for over 30 years, having created several lottery, capitalization and promotional products.
The content It’s time to make a choice: which of the lines will your Bet pull? appears first in Gaming365.
Fonte: Gaming365 – Brasil
