On April 16, 2024, the Ministry of Finance published Ordinance SPA/MF No. 615 (PN No. 615), which establishes the general rules to be observed in payment transactions carried out by agents authorized to operate the fixed-odds lottery betting modality in the national territory. This is one of the Ordinances that make up Phase I of the Regulatory Agenda of the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance, established by Ordinance SPA/MF No. 561, of April 8, 2024.
PN No. 615 is another step taken by the Government to regulate the fixed-odds lottery sector – also called betting – in Brazil, which had an important advance with the publication of Law No. 14,790, of December 29, 2023 (Law No. 14,790/2023).
Payment transactions are an important component in this market, and the Congress has decided to include a specific chapter in Law No. 14,790/2023 to address payment activities and the requirements that need to be met by sports betting operators, payment institutions, and financial institutions, including the obligation that only institutions authorized to operate by the Central Bank of Brazil can offer transactional accounts that allow bettors to make deposits and withdrawals in graphic accounts with the operator or receive prize amounts due to them (article 22 of Law No. 14,790/2023). This reinforces the legislative innovation of involving the monetary authority in the supervision of financial activities involving betting platforms.
With the enactment of PN No. 615, the Ministry of Finance seeks to carefully regulate the provisions applicable to payment activities in the sector.
We highlight below some aspects of the new regulation:
1. Account Structure:
PN No. 615 regulates the account structure that must be followed by sports betting operators, payment institutions and financial institutions, and defines that deposits and withdrawals of funds made by bettors, as well as the payment of prizes made by operators, must be carried out exclusively through wire transfers between a registered account of the bettor with the operator and the operator’s transactional account, both held in financial or payment institutions authorized to operate by the Central Bank of Brazil.
Transactional accounts are classified as a deposit or prepaid payment account, owned by the operator, held in a financial or payment institution authorized to operate by the Central Bank of Brazil, used as a destination for financial deposits made by bettors, to keep the amounts related to open bets or, at the bettor’s discretion, to keep the prizes received.
The funds held in transactional accounts (i) constitute segregated assets (“patrimônio separado”), which are not to be confused with those of the betting operator, (ii) are not directly or indirectly responsible for any obligation of the operator, nor can they be subject to provisional attachment, sequestration, search and seizure or any other act of judicial restraint due to debts of the betting operator, (iii) do not comprise the assets of the betting operator, in the event of bankruptcy, court or out-of-court reorganization, court or out-of-court intervention or liquidation, and (iv) cannot be given as collateral for debts incurred by the betting operator.
PN No. 615 also provides for a structure of graphical accounts (virtual; non-transactional), providing that the betting operator must make them available in its systems to allow each bettor to manage their transactions and funds.
2. Prohibited payment methods
To discourage the bettor's indebtedness, PN No. 615 only authorizes payments made through Instant Payment (PIX), Wire Transfer (TED, in Portuguese), debit or prepaid card, and book transfer, in the case of accounts held in the same institution. It is forbidden for operators to accept funds through (i) cash; (ii) payment slips; (iii) checks; (iv) virtual assets or other types of crypto-assets; (v) payments or transfers from an account that has not been previously registered by the bettor; (vi) payments or transfers from third parties; (vii) credit cards or any other postpaid payment methods; and (viii) any other wire transfer option not provided for above.
The rule also prohibits institutions not authorized to operate by the Central Bank of Brazil from acting as intermediaries in payment transactions between bettors and betting operators, including collection agents or payment managers.
Finally, operating bettors are prohibited from (i) allowing bets to be placed without prior settlement of the wire transfer of funds referred to in the head of this article; (ii) granting, in any form, any advance, anticipation, bonus or prior advantage, even if merely for promotion, publicity or advertising, for the placing of bets; (iii) entering into a partnership, agreement, contract or any other form of business arrangement to enable or facilitate access to credit or commercial development transactions by the bettor; and (iv) promoting or allowing access, through its physical establishment or its electronic channels, for individuals or legal entities that grant credit or carry out commercial development transactions to bettors.
3. Other requirements
The ordinance also covers other requirements that need to be observed by betting operators, including rules for the payment of prizes, such as the deadline of up to 120 minutes for the payment of prizes, and the implementation of policies for managing exposure to liquidity risks, which requires preparing a contingency plan and identifying additional sources of funds, as well as establishing a financial reserve of at least R$5,000,000.00 for the payment of prizes and amounts due to bettors.
PN No. 615 enters into force on the date of publication.
