By Marcela Ayres and Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA, April 24 (Reuters) – Brazil has blocked prediction market platforms and tightened derivatives rules to curb “bet-like” products, Finance Minister Dario Durigan said on Friday, arguing such markets breach betting regulations approved by Congress.
Speaking at a press conference, Durigan said 28 prediction market platforms had been shut down in Latin America’s largest economy by telecoms regulator Anatel. Hours later, the Finance Ministry revised the figure to 27 firms.
Websites of companies such as Polymarket and Kalshi were offline by early Friday afternoon.
Durigan added the National Monetary Council on Thursday defined which underlying assets may be used in derivatives trading, banning those linked to sports events, online gaming, or political, electoral, cultural and social outcomes.
Under the text, the council allows only derivative contracts tied to pre-defined economic and financial benchmarks, such as price indices, interest rates and exchange rates, effectively barring other instruments.
Trading in such derivatives will be permitted provided it is carried out by authorized firms that comply with the law and relevant secondary regulations.
At the same briefing, economic reforms secretary Regis Dudena said Brazilian law previously defined only two types of events as eligible for betting: real-world sports events and online games.
Dudena said prediction markets had sought to present themselves as financial products by selling derivatives, but in practice resembled betting.
“This product that was being presented as a security carried the potentially very destructive features of gambling,” Dudena said.
Presidential chief of staff Miriam Belchior said the government’s move aimed to prevent the consolidation of a new, unregulated betting market through prediction platforms.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration, which has regulated and imposed taxes on online betting firms after years of operating without rules in the country, has said the spread of gambling has worsened household indebtedness.
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres and Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Rod Nickel)
