Brazil's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), part of the Ministry of Finance, published Public Consultation Notice SPA/MF No. 3/2026 in the Diário Oficial da União — the country's Federal Official Gazette — on 22 July 2026. The consultation runs for 45 days, from 27 July to 9 September 2026, and gathers input for a forthcoming ordinance that will set the rules and conditions for obtaining authorization to commercially operate the fixed-odds betting lottery modality. As of 30 June 2026, 87 operators hold an active federal SPA licence and another 14 applications are pending review.
The SPA became operational as a standalone regulator on 1 January 2025 as part of the implementation of Lei 14.790/2023, Brazil's so-called betting law. Since then, authorizations have been issued on a rolling basis: the fixed licence fee is 30 million reais for a five-year term, covering up to three brands within one holding group. Public Consultation No. 3/2026 is the third of the year and the most directly focused on the authorization procedure itself — not on technical standards or tax rules, which are governed by separate ordinances.
In our view, Consultation No. 3/2026 is not a routine procedure but a maturity signal for the market. After eighteen months of operation, the regulator has accumulated enough practical experience from issuing the first ~90 authorizations to formalize the procedure into a single ordinance. Previously the rules were partly scattered across multiple normative acts, and decisions were often made in ad-hoc fashion. Now the SPA is opening for debate a unified document that will define how companies file applications, which financial and technical fitness thresholds they must meet, and in what cases the regulator may revoke an authorization.
For players in Brazil, this has a direct effect on which brands will be recognized as officially authorized in 2027 and beyond. Operators without a SPA autorização — even those holding MGA, UKGC or Curaçao licences — remain in the grey zone for Brazilian residents. This is a fundamental difference from Europe: Germany's GGL regime works on similar centralization logic, but in Brazil, being on the federal register of authorized brands is what determines whether your bank can process PIX payments to a casino without blocking — and whether income tax is withheld at source.
In our view, the SPA consultation fits into the global trend of regulatory centralization in iGaming that we tracked throughout July 2026: the UKGC redirected regulatory settlements to the Consolidated Fund, Sweden's Spelinspektionen is moving Spelpaus to a real-time API from 1 August, and Brazil is now unifying its licensing procedure. The common thread is a shift from fragmented instruments to a single, publicly consulted document with clear regulator accountability. It narrows the space in which grey-zone operators can slip through legal loopholes.
For international readers it is worth noting that the SPA is structurally similar to Europe's newer centralized regulators: one federal body, a public register of authorized brands, clear financial thresholds for entry. The scale is different: Brazil is a market of roughly 200 million adults and one of the largest licensed online-casino jurisdictions in the world. The rules the SPA will draft based on this consultation will very likely become a template for other Latin-American countries and will indirectly influence how global platforms such as LeoVegas, Betway or Bwin structure their offering — including in Europe. The core logic of picking a reliable online casino does not change: licence, transparent terms, realistic bonuses.
What is Public Consultation SPA/MF No. 3/2026 and whom does it affect?
Public Consultation SPA/MF No. 3/2026 is an official rulemaking process in which Brazil's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets collects input for a forthcoming ordinance on the rules for granting authorization to commercially operate fixed-odds betting. It affects every company that holds or plans to apply for a SPA authorization, as well as players and civil-society organizations. Comments are submitted through the Brasil Participativo portal — individuals and legal entities may comment on equal terms.
When does it start and how do you submit a comment?
The consultation runs for 45 days — from 27 July to 9 September 2026. The formal notice was published in the Diário Oficial da União on 22 July 2026. Comments are accepted exclusively via the Brasil Participativo portal. Industry expectation is that the ordinance based on the results will be issued by the end of the fourth quarter of 2026, and will apply to all operators that submit applications in the Q4 2026 licensing window.
Does this affect Brazilian players right now?
Directly, no: the current authorizations of the 87 licensed operators remain valid, and no player-facing rules are changing during the consultation itself. The indirect effect will be felt most by anyone playing on grey-zone platforms without a SPA autorização: if the resulting ordinance tightens financial thresholds and the enforcement net around unlicensed operators, access to those sites through PIX payments and bank withdrawals may become even harder. Players holding a Brazilian CPF should verify their operator's status in the SPA public register before making any deposit.
What does it mean for players in Europe?
The direct impact on European players is minimal: a SPA authorization does not entitle an operator to serve EU residents, and conversely, an MGA or UKGC licence alone does not allow legal acceptance of Brazilian customers. But the episode is illustrative: Brazil is building one of the largest centralized online-casino regimes in the world, and SPA decisions will directly shape the business models of global groups (Entain, Flutter, Kaizen) — and, downstream, the bonus packages and UX those same operators offer in Europe. In practical player terms, that is one more argument in favour of setting your own monthly budget irrespective of the licensing jurisdiction.
As of 30 July 2026, if you are a Brazilian resident playing at an online casino or placing bets, take three concrete steps. First: verify that your operator is on the official public list of SPA-autorizados on the Ministério da Fazenda website — if the brand is not there, you are playing in a grey zone, and no MGA, UKGC or Curaçao document changes that. Second: lock in a monthly deposit limit in your player profile and use SPA autoexclusão if you need it. Third: if your annual gambling income exceeds the R$ 2,259.20 tax-free threshold, IRPF is withheld at source — keep statements for your tax return.
In our view, Public Consultation SPA/MF No. 3/2026 is an important marker of the maturity of the Brazilian regulatory regime: after eighteen months the regulator is moving from the initial licensing rounds to a formalized, stable process. For players — Brazilian and European alike — it is a signal that SPA's next steps deserve close attention, because they will determine access to specific brands and products. Playing at an online casino and any form of betting is adult entertainment (18+), not a way to earn money; if you feel your gambling budget is getting out of control, use SPA autoexclusão (Brazil), GAMSTOP (UK), OASIS (Germany), Spelpaus (Sweden), RUA (Italy), the ANJ register (France) — or contact your national helpline.