Brazil makes harm warnings mandatory on betting adverts
From 17 July 2026, every fixed-odds betting advert must carry a rotating harm warning on at least 10% of its area, and ads aimed at under-18s are deemed abusive.
What happened
Portaria SPA/MF no 1.964, published in the Diario Oficial da Uniao on 10 July 2026 and in force from 17 July 2026, amends Brazil’s foundational betting-advertising rules. Every fixed-odds advert must now display one of three rotating warnings from the Ministry of Finance - that betting can cause dependency, that betting makes you lose money, and that betting is not an investment - shown legibly and occupying no less than 10% of the advert’s length or area. The ordinance also bars misleading adverts, prohibits specialists or experts endorsing specific games, forbids promoting unauthorised platforms, and classifies any advertising aimed at people under 18 as abusive. A companion inter-ministerial ordinance sets up consumer-protection cooperation between the SPA, the government communications secretariat and the Justice Ministry.
What it means
Brazil’s regulated Bets market went live on 1 January 2025, and the SPA is still building out the secondary rules that flesh out the regime. This is an advertising-conduct rule rather than a change to who may operate: it sets a concrete, measurable format requirement (the 10% warning) and hard prohibitions (no under-18 targeting, no misleading claims) that operators and their agencies must apply to every creative. It sits alongside the separate fixed-odds authorisation consultation the SPA opened in July 2026.
Who it affects
Federal Bets-authorised operators and their marketing and compliance teams, the agencies producing their adverts, and anyone tracking how Latin America’s largest regulated market is tightening its advertising rulebook.
Sources
Primary sources last checked 8 August 2026.