Payment fintechs rush to Brasília to renegotiate the crackdown on illegal betting.

Small and medium-sized payment fintechs are rushing to Brasília to try and renegotiate the rules of the Ministry of Finance's crackdown on illegal betting. The movement, reported by Guilherme Amado's column in AmadoMundo this Monday (June 22), involves representatives of the sector seeking emergency meetings at the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA).

The concern in this sector stems from the fact that several of these companies grew by processing Pix transactions from betting platforms that operated outside the law. Large banks, with more robust compliance systems, do not face the same exposure.

24-hour deadline and joint liability

The central point of pressure on the sector is the 24-hour deadline imposed by the new regulation for freezing betting accounts after official notification. Those who fail to comply with this window inherit joint tax liability for the tax debts of the irregular platform.

The regulation punishes payment intermediaries that "contribute to the irregular exploitation" of illegal betting. It is precisely this concept that fintech companies want to renegotiate or soften with the SPA, according to the column's report.

The argument presented to the government includes the risk of a "domino effect of bankruptcies" in the sector. The industry claims that the strict application of the rule could make operations unfeasible for companies that, according to them, had no way of distinguishing legal platforms from irregular ones at the time they processed the transactions.