Brazil’s women-in-gaming association has warned that dismantling the country’s regulated betting market would threaten female employment and push millions of women towards unlicensed operators, as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva intensifies his attacks on the sector ahead of October’s election.
The Associação de Mulheres da Indústria do Gaming (AMIG) issued an open letter expressing “deep concern and repudiation” of calls to close or prohibit companies operating legally in Brazil.
While acknowledging the need to confront illegal gambling, indebtedness and gambling-related harm, the association argued that legitimate concerns were being used to blur the distinction between licensed and clandestine businesses.
AMIG said it has approximately 1,500 members and represents an industry employing around 10,000 women across technology, compliance, legal services, anti-money laundering, safer gambling, payments and customer support. Indiscriminate action against the regulated sector, it said, threatens “jobs, careers, income, taxes and the economic autonomy of thousands of women”.
The association also cited data from the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting showing that women account for 31.7% of active players in Brazil’s regulated market. That represents approximately 10.1 million women among nearly 31.8 million unique active bettors, based on data extracted from the country’s Sigap system on 8 September.
“Banning is not synonymous with protecting,” AMIG said, arguing that prohibition would not necessarily eliminate demand. Instead, it could redirect consumers towards operators without age verification, self-exclusion, transaction monitoring, data safeguards or responsible-gambling controls. “The path is to strengthen legality,” the organisation added.
The intervention comes amid increasingly hostile rhetoric from Lula and indications that his government could act before the first round of the general election on 4 October.
Reuters reported that the administration was preparing a provisional measure that could prohibit online casino games while leaving sports betting and associated sponsorships formally untouched. The final proposal had yet to receive presidential approval.
Lula and his opponents have targeted betting during the presidential campaign as voters express concerns about household finances, while an immediately effective provisional measure would allow the government to act before polling day.
AMIG urged the government to distinguish licensed companies from illegal operators and consult regulated-sector representatives before proceeding. Its central message was that vulnerable consumers require stronger safeguards—but that dismantling regulation would remove, rather than reinforce, those protections.