Item 07: Ordinance SPA/MF NO. 1,207

Establishes the technical requirements for online games and live game studios to be observed by fixed-odds betting lottery operators.

The publication of Ordinance SPA/MF No. 1,207, dated July 29, 2024, which sets out the technical requirements for online games and live game studios to be exploited by fixed-odds betting lottery operators in the country, was one of the most eagerly awaited in the market.

This is because the initiative to include online games in the legal text did not come from the regulator, and there was no clarity on how the Secretariat could fit certain types of games into the fixed-odds criteria established by Articles 2 and 3 of Law No. 14,970/2024.

The Ordinance resolved the existing doubts and established rules that allow very popular modalities such as slots and crash games, as well as traditional casino games and live studio games, to be offered by operators, provided they comply with the established technical requirements, especially:

• Presenting, at the time of the bet, a multiplication factor for each unit of national currency bet, defining the amount to be received by the winning bettor.
• Having the result determined by the outcome of a future random event, based on a random number generator of numbers, symbols, figures, or objects.
• Making available the payout tables covering all possible gains for the bettor before the bet is placed.

The Ordinance established that games of skill (such as poker), fantasy sports, multiplayer games, and peer-to-peer (P2P) games do not fall under the concept of online games (and are therefore not subject to regulation).

Online games and live game studios must be certified specifically for Brazil by certification entities duly accredited by SPA/MF. Certificates related to online games must be reissued whenever critical components of the game are added, modified, or removed, while certificates for live game studios must be submitted annually by operators.

The Ordinance also stipulates that operators cannot offer online game bets in physical establishments and must keep all data, information, and documents related to online games and live game studios for at least five years from their creation.

Finally, the Ordinance corrected the online game session inactivity time provided in Ordinance SPA/MF No. 615, originally two minutes, to a period of thirty minutes.

The Ordinance also includes three technical Annexes that establish the technical requirements for Online Games, Live Game Studios, and a Glossary of technical terms.

The Corporate Law and M&A, Banking & Fintechs, Compliance, Public Law & Regulatory, and Consumer & Product Liability teams at Souto Correa are available to provide more information and clarifications on the matter.