A new Comscore study reveals that Brazil reached 42.5 million unique users on betting sites, trailing only the United States and England. The Top 5 countries are completed by India and Italy. According to the survey, the category has had significant growth in terms of consumption time since 2019, showing an increase of 281%, reaching 2,000 million minutes consumed per month. This represents the equivalent of 32% of the Brazilian digital population, with 80% of these consumers connecting only through mobile devices.
Regarding the user profile, 49% of them belong to class C; while, at the gender level, 61% of consumers are men, mostly over 45 years of age.
"We note that the growth in access to gambling among Brazilian consumers can be attributed to several factors, such as the popularization of online betting, the reach of the Internet and the advancement of technology, as well as the wide coverage of events. In this analysis, we deepened the profile of these users and drew an interesting picture of the category in Brazil and in the world," said Ingrid Veronesi, Comscore's senior director for Brazil.
Another aspect that contributed to the growth in the use of betting sites was their exposure on social networks. In the first quarter of 2023, the sector registered 617,000 actions in the main social networks, with Betfair being the most active brand in these media.
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It is estimated that Mexico's physical casinos have around 100,000 gaming machines in their rooms. And they receive around five million visitors a year. In parallel, the online market is another strong point of the country: 80 online gaming platforms authorized by the General Directorate of Games and Lotteries of the Ministry of the Interior operate.
“However, the “gray” offer of online operators still far exceeds the legal market”
MARKET CHARACTERISTICS
For Alfredo Lazcano, legal expert in gaming, fintech and media technologies, and president of the Mexican law firm Lazcano Sámano, S.C, the market is in a process of maturation. “Although it has developed steadily for two decades, there are those who could describe it as a complex market, which has not yet fully developed”
The specialist considers that it is a market that continues to grow, under a “peculiar” regulatory context. He explains that this is due to the fact that it has an outdated legal framework that has been overtaken by reality. However, it also has general provisions that are “beneficial” for the sector.
As an example, he points to the regulation at the federal level. “A gaming permit is valid for carrying out betting games throughout the country, and, in most cases, this federal permit includes the regulatory authorization for both in-person and online gaming.”
SECTOR INCOME
“We have 423 land-based casinos in operation, spread across a hundred municipalities in 29 of the 32 states that make up the country,” explained Miguel Ángel Ochoa, president of the Association of Permit Holders, Operators and Suppliers of the Entertainment and Gambling Industry (Aieja).
According to Miguel Ángel Ochoa, the total amount of taxes that the land-based industry pays annually to the federation, the states and the municipalities where the casinos operate, exceeds 12 billion pesos.
“As regards the online vertical, according to a site specialized in the industry, it was anticipated that currently the value of the market in Mexico was higher than 2 billion dollars.” Regarding job creation, the sector as a whole creates 200,000 jobs, both direct and indirect.
A STEP BACK ON THE ROAD
On November 16, 2023, the Federal Executive issued a decree to reform the current regulations of the Gaming Law. According to Ochoa, the main argument was that said regulation exceeded the hierarchy of the current Federal Gaming and Lottery Law.
“This decree surprised us, because relations with the Mexican government have been good throughout the six-year term and we have maintained a permanent and fluid communication with the Regulator,” he recalled.
If this initiative is maintained, it will prevent, for example, the renewal of permits at the end of their validity, which, as explained by the president of Aieja, had a duration of 25 years. “The anguish is real, if one takes into account the investment that obtaining a permit means. And many of these are about to expire between 2028 and 2033. In addition, in one of its transitory articles, it establishes that the maximum period of validity, for the unlimited ones, will be 2038,” he warned.
Miguel Ángel Ochoa also pointed to a problem that was generated by an erroneous interpretation of the text by the Ministry of Economy in relation to slot machines. This is after the Executive announced that there would be no new permits or new openings of rooms while his administration was ending.
“However, in another of the transitory articles, the text itself says that acquired rights will be respected; therefore, those who have contracts with machine manufacturers will be able to continue having access to those machines until the end of their contract,” Ochoa explained.
Since then, negotiations have been undertaken between the businessmen and that secretary, while the majority of manufacturers have filed appeals for protection, of which several have been advancing. “At least one of them is already importing again and two more are about to obtain that authorization,” he said.
A quick way out of this impasse is to correct or eliminate the decree. From Aieja, the elaboration and promulgation of a Federal Law of Gambling has been promoted that would render it ineffective and would allow the modernization of the legal framework, according to the president of the association.
“In case the Legislative Power continues without considering this possibility, the appeals would help us to leave things as they were before the publication of the decree and continue our activity normally,” he noted.
Brazil's Ministry of Finance and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) have signed a cooperation agreement to ensure the integrity of sports betting in the country. The agreement will allow both parties to share information on suspicious betting activities related to Brazilian sport and collaborate on investigations.
This partnership brings together the government body responsible for ensuring the legality, security and reliability of the Brazilian betting market with the largest international organisation monitoring the integrity of betting for private operators.
IBIA and Spelinspektionen signs memorandum of understanding for betting integrity on betting’s
IBIA, which according to the leading data and intelligence company in the sector, H2 Gambling Capital, should cover more than 70% of the online betting market in Brazil, will work together with the Ministry of Finance to combat match manipulation. According to the study The Availability of Sports Betting Products:
An Economic and Integrity Analysis, published this year, the new regulation of sports betting in Brazil is expected to generate revenues of $34 billion by 2028. With this growth, the responsibility to protect customers, sports and betting operators against match-fixing will increase. A key element of the new Brazilian legislation is the requirement that operators applying for a license join an independent sports integrity monitoring body. This measure aims to strengthen IBIA's ability to monitor, evaluate and protect betting transactions in the Brazilian regulated market, ensuring the integrity of sporting events.
Regis Dudena, Secretary for Prizes and Betting, stated in this regard that “cooperation with IBIA will strengthen the work of the Secretariat for Prizes and Betting (SPA) in the fight against the manipulation of sporting events.
Together, we will mitigate this problem on a global scale.” Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “IBIA is delighted to have reached this agreement with the Ministry of Finance and commends the government’s focus on creating a robust ecosystem to combat match-fixing in sports betting.” “Collaboration and information sharing are essential for the country. In line with the agreement, IBIA will identify and report suspicious bets on Brazilian sporting events to the Ministry of Finance, providing detailed data on customer accounts, which are exclusive to IBIA and its members, to assist in investigations.”
Frederico Alves Soares Justo, General Coordinator of Money Laundering and Related Monitoring at the Ministry of Finance, added that “for the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, the signing of this agreement with IBIA represents the certainty that we are on the right path to curb the manipulation of results.” “We will leverage IBIA’s experience in monitoring the betting market to create mechanisms to combat this practice that undermines the credibility of sport and the betting market.” IBIA is an international non-profit organisation that seeks to protect the integrity of sport and the betting sector by combating match-fixing and betting-related fraud. The organisation offers a free integrity monitoring service to sports bodies, regulators and law enforcement agencies, free of conflicts of interest, allowing all parties to cooperate efficiently in the investigation, sanctioning and prevention of match-fixing in sports betting. IBIA monitors a betting volume of more than $300 billion per year across more than 125 sports betting brands worldwide, making it the largest betting integrity monitoring organisation for private operators in the world. The association's access to detailed transactional data of global customers plays a key role in protecting the Brazilian sports betting market and sporting events from corrupt activities.
This Responsible Gaming Microsite is an open and interactive space designed to provide information and tools for promotion and prevention. Its objective is to allow games of chance and luck to be understood as an entertainment and fun activity, ensuring that their responsible practice does not entail negative consequences for physical and mental health.
This is how the presentation of the new portal that started this weekend begins. In 2024, Coljuegos launches the "Take control, play for sure" campaign, an initiative to promote responsible gaming and protect players from the risks of excessive use of games of chance.
Aware of the importance of educating the community about these risks and encouraging healthy habits, this campaign seeks to empower players to make informed decisions and maintain control over their gaming experience. Visit the site here
The fight against clandestine exploitation and informality in the gambling sector was intensified by Conajzar, dependent on the general management of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to strengthen public policies for the formalization of gambling in Paraguay.
The actions are framed within Law No. 1016/1997, its amendment 4716/2012, Law No. 6903/2022 and Regulatory Decree No. 938/2023, which establish compliance with the regulations that govern the exploitation of gambling in the country.
Meeting between Colombian Coljuegos President and Comisión Nacional de Juegos de Azar (Conajzar), Carlos Augusto Liseras
In this sense, Conajzar reaffirms its commitment to the eradication of the illegal exploitation of gambling, highlighting the negative effects that this activity has on the mental health of minors and families in general. It also represents a direct detriment to the budget of the Directorate of Charity and Social Aid (DIBEN).
According to Law 1016/1997, CONAJZAR is responsible for the preparation and approval of the terms and conditions for national games, as well as the call for public tenders for their concession, the awarding of the games tendered and the distribution of the fiscal fees. In addition, it proposes to the Executive Branch the appointments of officials related to the supervision of this sector.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance, for its part, is responsible for planning, controlling and supervising games of chance and the activities of the natural or legal persons dedicated to their exploitation, as well as for managing the interjurisdictional relations arising from this activity.
As part of the technological modernization process, this Wednesday the Coljuegos Artificial Intelligence Center, CIAC, was inaugurated, a tool that will allow monitoring the activity of illegal online betting, as well as monitoring in real time the transfers made by the 3,656 localized gaming establishments authorized by the entity.
“We are inaugurating the first stage of this technological project that seeks to strengthen surveillance for localized games and combat the phenomenon of illegal betting websites. With this, we continue in our purpose of bringing the entity into the 21st century,” Coljuegos.
Thus, the CIAC has an intelligent platform for the administration and control of gambling, through which it is possible to identify the data transmission process of the 107,150 electronic slot machines and 16,645 bingo chairs that operate legally in the country.
In other words, this system allows us to know exactly how much each of the authorized gambling elements transfers. KIGGU, the cybersecurity company that advises Coljuegos.
Likewise, the CIAC has a control panel for illegality on the Internet, which was developed with the support of Kiggu, a company specialized in cybersecurity. Through this tool, it is possible to identify illegal pages on the web, deep web and darknet, as well as protect the brand of the 16 authorized online betting operators against possible cases of duplication of their portals.
The system allows Coljuegos to track social media profiles that operate illegal raffles and promote unauthorized betting sites. In addition, reports are obtained there of possible cyber attacks against legal betting sites. “In the coming months we will be implementing the second phase of the CIAC, in which we will include real-time monitoring tools for online betting and even for territorial games. All this will allow us to be at the forefront and guarantee the protection of resources for the health of Colombians”
“With this tool, we will be able to increase our capacity to fight against illegality on the Internet. In the last year, we have already issued 5,112 blocking orders to unauthorized betting sites, and we hope to increase this number in the coming days,” said the president of Coljuegos.
The third CIAC board is responsible for monitoring the technological infrastructure of Coljuegos. This tool allows the entity to maintain an optimal performance level of systems such as SICOL, Operator Portal, Email, Document Management, servers, network stabilization and other services that guarantee the correct operation of the entity.
For its part, the fourth board focuses on the detailed monitoring of the procedures carried out by the operators of games located before Coljuegos, this will allow, in the short term, to continue reducing the response times for requests for new contracts and renewals.