Brazil is stepping up its efforts to develop new regulations to strengthen its age certification regulations for online lottery and related digital services. As the Brazilian lottery industry continues to expand, the Government is working to improve protection measures for minors.
At present, the Federal Government of Brazil is drafting a new plan aimed at enforcing a strict age certification mechanism for the application store and various digital platforms. In essence, these rules will be the “law enforcement basis” of the law on the protection of minors adopted in 2025. Its core principle is clear: access to government-prohibited content cannot be controlled if the platform is unable to effectively identify users. Although the rules are still being debated by the authorities, sources have revealed that the relevant legislation is expected to be finalized by the end of this month. For the Brazilian government, this is no doubt part of the current multiple challenges – President Lula, in addition to having to deal with a strong backlash by operators against tax-raising policies, is facing the continuing disruption of the game industry’s regulatory system.
According to the proposal, any website and application that involves or promotes lottery activities must verify the age of the user by reliable means and it is prohibited for an enterprise to rely only on the date of birth that the user has filled out. While the Department is also exploring the establishment of a unified identification system for the integration of platforms into the user registration process. The proposal also contains privacy protection provisions that severely restrict the way in which information collected by enterprises in the identification process is stored and used. Such measures may extend in the future to other sensitive areas of the network, such as alcohol advertising and adult content, with the aim of building a unified system of protection covering the entire digital ecology. The proposal also reflects the overall strategic shift in the field of digital regulation in Brazil. As part of the ongoing reform, the Brazilian Government had previously closed thousands of illegal gaming sites. The era of “open one eye and one eye” for non-compliant advertising on technology platforms is coming to an end. A number of recent judicial decisions have explicitly attributed legal responsibility directly to the platform, requiring it to have legal consequences for the illegal content promoted. At the legislative level, there is a parallel process: parliamentarians are considering a series of new bills to impose more stringent restrictions on digital services and emerging technological trends.
There are indications that the “era of lawlessness” of the Internet is being replaced by a more stringent regulatory framework. For operators, the forthcoming executive decree foresees that in this rapidly growing compliance market, enterprises will face more stringent compliance obligations.
