Brazil: SPA, Anatel Team Up to Improve Illegal Gambling Websites Blocking

A new cooperation agreement between government bodies in Brazil will help in the fight against illegal gambling.

Anatel Will Continue Blocking Illegal Gambling Websites

That is the case of a new agreement between the country’s National Telecommunications Agency, Anatel, and the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA). The duo announced their new collaboration earlier this week, signing a new Technical Cooperation Agreement (ACT) that would enable the former agency to effectively combat unlawful gambling.

Ultimately, the deal is expected to ease the blocking of illegal gambling websites by Anatel, granting the agency an advantage in such processes. At the same time, the agency’s effective collaboration with the SPA will help protect Brazilians from illegal gambling websites, ahead of the upcoming launch of the country’s regulated betting and online casino market.

The newly signed ACT between Anatel and the SPA comes at a time when the online gambling sector has gone through rapid growth in Brazil. With the regulated market expected at the start of next year, the country plans to create a fair, safe and competitive online gambling sector. To do so, Brazil needs to get rid of illegal gambling websites.

Under the ACT, the SPA will file reports with Anatel, asking for unlawful gambling websites to be blocked. Consequently, the latter agency will push those requests forward with internet service providers. Once the unlawful websites have been blocked, Anatel will notify the SPA of the result. This practice will repeat over and over again via government channels, ensuring transparency and accountability.

The Cooperation Tackles the Challenge of Blocking the Access of Brazilians to Illegal Gambling

Carlos Baigorri, Anatel’s president, praised the new collaboration, confirming that it will grant the agency with key advantage and ease website blocking. “We know that it is a challenging task to prevent Brazilians from accessing illegal gambling sites and, precisely for this reason, cooperation is essential so that the blockings are carried out in the shortest possible time by telecommunications service providers,” he added. Finally, Baigorri said that the fight against operators that breach Brazil’s gambling regulations will continue.

Regis Dudena, the Ministry of Finance’s Secretary of Prizes and Bets, added that to effectively fight against threats and protect the gamblers, clear definitions and fast electronic communication are necessary. “Anatel has already been a very important partner since we intensified the fight against illegality,” he added. Last but not least, Dudena spoke about the importance of the new ACT predicting it will help remove bad actors from the gambling sector.

Again, this week, Brazil announced the foundation of an interministerial work group that will tackle gambling harm. Prior to the launch of the country’s legal gambling sector, the group, consisting of representatives from different ministries will seek to develop programs that support people affected by gambling harm, while also playing a key role in the prevention of problem gambling.