Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies committee approved a bill banning the use of minors in gambling advertising this week, closing a regulatory gap that has left digital promotion largely unconstrained despite existing restrictions on underage consumption and purchases of gambling products.
The Committee on Social Security, Social Assistance, Childhood, Adolescence, and Family voted in favour of a substitute text prepared by Congresswoman Meire Serafim, linked to Bill 3724/24 originally tabled by Deputy Túlio Gadêlha. The legislation amends provisions established by Law 14.790/23 and the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA), following congressional discussions about strengthening protections for children and teenagers within Brazil’s regulated betting framework.
Congresswoman Serafim identified the specific gap her text is designed to address when submitting her report to the committee.
“Even though consumption and purchases were already prohibited, there was no law specifically dealing with advertising. And that’s precisely what this project does, prohibiting this kind of publicity on any digital or communication platform.”
Scope of the Restrictions
The bill bans the participation of minors in advertising for lottery draws and betting platforms across digital and physical channels. Coverage extends to promotional activity involving teenage content creators and social media personalities whose audiences include underage users, spanning mobile applications, video platforms and social media channels.
Any advertising that promotes betting products to underage audiences would constitute an administrative offence under the proposal. The measure addresses the growing use of young online personalities in gambling marketing, which Law 14.790/23 and the ECA have not explicitly prohibited, despite covering restrictions on consumption and purchases.
The bill was developed in part because no existing rule specifically barred betting companies from featuring minors in paid promotional content or from engaging teenage influencers to reach audiences that include children.
Penalties and Aggravating Circumstances
The proposed text sets administrative fines of between BRL 3,000 and BRL 10,000 for companies, betting agencies and representatives involved in advertising featuring minors. Repeat violations within a 12-month window double the applicable penalty.
Steeper multipliers apply to specific categories of offender. Betting company representatives or parents who organise gambling advertisements with minor participants face fines ten times the base amount. Betting operators who directly arrange advertisements featuring minor players face the highest exposure, with fines set at one hundred times the base rate.
The tiered structure places the greatest financial burden on operators, treating them as the party with primary commercial responsibility for advertising compliance.
Legislative Status and Next Steps
Under Brazilian legislative procedure, a committee-approved bill can advance without an immediate plenary vote unless challenged by lawmakers. The legislation must first pass through the Committee on the Constitution and Justice (CCJ), which will assess its constitutional basis before it can proceed.
Final enactment requires approval by both chambers of Congress and a presidential signature. No expedited timeline applies, meaning the bill’s progress depends on the broader congressional schedule and whether the CCJ raises objections requiring revisions.
Context: Brazil’s Advertising Regulatory Trajectory
The committee vote adds to a growing body of Brazilian legislation targeting gambling advertising. A separate Senate bill proposing a total ban on gambling advertising across all media is also advancing, reflecting political concern about the normalisation of betting promotion on broadcast, digital and social channels.
Brazil’s regulated market, now in its third year following the passage of Law 14.790/23, has produced a dense legislative agenda. Tax rates have been contested through much of 2025, with the congressional debate on betting tax structure producing several competing outcomes across chambers. The advertising framework is now an active parallel front in Brazil’s effort to build out the regulatory architecture around its newly open market.
The bill’s next step is a CCJ review, the outcome of which will determine whether it proceeds to a full congressional vote in both chambers.
Source: iGaming Brasil
