Provincial licensing, applied for separately in each jurisdiction
Argentina
There is no national licence: each province and the City of Buenos Aires regulate separately.
Partly restricted online casino
Brazil
The largest market to move from unlicensed to licensed in recent years, with betting and casino under one authorisation.
| Product | Position | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Online casino | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Sports betting | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Online poker | Partly restricted | Licensed in part only, or licensed subject to limits that exclude part of the usual product. |
| Lottery | State monopoly | Reserved to a state or state-controlled operator; no commercial licence is available. |
How the market works
Brazil legalised fixed-odds betting in 2018 but left the operating framework unwritten for five years, during which a very large unlicensed market developed with football sponsorship as its most visible feature. Law 14.790 of December 2023 supplied the framework, a dedicated secretariat was created inside the Ministry of Finance to run it, and authorised operation began in 2025.
The Brazilian authorisation covers sports betting and online casino games together under the single heading of fixed-odds betting, so operators do not need separate licences for the two verticals. An authorisation runs for five years against a substantial fixed fee, permits a limited number of brands, and requires a locally incorporated company with Brazilian shareholding and local technical infrastructure.
Several Brazilian requirements have no close parallel. Deposits must originate from an account in the customer's own name, a rule built around the Pix instant payment system that dominates Brazilian consumer banking, and identity verification standards are strict by regional comparison. Advertising limits, restrictions on who may be targeted and the treatment of welfare recipients have been among the most contested elements of the regime.
Who regulates it
Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas (SPA), based in Brasília and operating under Law 14.790/2023. The betting secretariat within Brazil's Ministry of Finance, which licensed the largest new market of the decade.
Licence types issued
- Fixed-odds betting authorisation (covering betting and online casino)
Questions about Brazil
Other markets in Latin America
Concession to operate a state monopoly activity
Colombia
The first Latin American country to licence online gambling nationally, and the regional template.
Licensed online casino
Online activity authorised as an annex to a land-based permit
Mexico
A large market with no modern online statute: operators work through holders of permits issued under 1947 legislation.
Partly restricted online casino
Authorisation by the gaming directorate
Peru
A quick, comparatively low-cost licensing regime that became a common first step into the region.
Licensed online casino
Background reading
Legal and compliance
What a gaming licence actually covers
A licence is not a badge of quality and it is not valid everywhere. What it authorises, who it binds, and why one company often holds a dozen.
Legal and compliance
How gambling is taxed, and why the base matters
A tax on stakes and a tax on gross gaming revenue can carry the same headline number and produce completely different businesses.
Legal and compliance
How a company enters a new market
The sequence from legal assessment to launch, and the parts that routinely take longer than anyone plans for.
Legal and compliance
What grey and black markets actually mean
The industry uses three words for the legal status of a market and rarely defines them. Here is what each one means in practice.