Brazil prepares decree to require “real” age verification and block minors from online betting and other restricted content

Planalto is drafting rules to regulate the ECA Digital and force platforms and app stores to stop relying on self-declared ages—raising the compliance bar for betting operators, advertisers, and distribution channels.

Brazil’s federal government is finalising a presidential decree aimed at restricting under-18 access to online betting and other adult or harmful digital content, according to reporting by Bloomberg and confirmation cited by CNN Brasil.

The draft approach centres on effective age verification: instead of letting users tick a box, platforms offering restricted content would have to verify age using officially recognisable credentials (CNN cites CPF as an example) and cross-check data against public systems. CNN also reports the decree would extend age-gating to sites that carry ads for pornography and online betting, not only the “primary” adult services themselves.

The initiative is designed to implement the Estatuto Digital da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA Digital), enacted as Federal Law 15.211/2025, which already requires platforms to take “reasonable” steps to prevent children and teens from accessing content such as gambling/betting and other prohibited categories, and explicitly moves beyond simple self-declaration for age checks.

If the decree is published as currently described, Brazil’s licensed betting market will be watching for two practical impacts: stricter controls on age-gated access flows (including on mobile distribution via app stores) and tighter rules around where betting promotion can appear when minors could be exposed—turning “age verification” into an ecosystem requirement rather than only an operator KYC checkbox.