Lottopar joins Conar to guarantee responsible advertising in the lottery market

With five sports betting sites operating in a regulated manner and authorised by Lottopar and with the full commercialisation of the instant lottery, Raspinha, the operators accredited by the authority have stepped up their advertising. 

As a supervisory body, Lottopar ensures that the advertising carried out by these companies complies with Ordinance No. 008/2024, published by the authority, and also with the Brazilian Advertising Self-Regulation Code of the Brazilian National Advertising Self-Regulation Council (Conar in its original).

Lottopar joined Conar in July. From now on, the local authority has new mechanisms for inspection, as it now has an exclusive channel with Conar to lodge representations against companies and other organisations that are not complying with the rules and principles of responsible and safe advertising. The authority must ensure that advertising in the lottery sector in Paraná is responsible.

In addition to being more agile, the complaints made by Lottopar to Conar also go through all the formal process, reporting and voting by the councillors to support the decision to change or suspend an advertisement.

‘This is yet another tool that we are making available to the people of Paraná to develop a responsible lottery market. We know the power of advertising and it needs to be carried out within ethical and moral standards in order to spread the word that lottery games and sports betting are, above all, a new form of entertainment for the people of Paraná,’ emphasises the president of the authority, Daniel Romanowski.

HOW IT WORKS

If the public believes that any advertising carried out by lottery or sports betting operators is in breach of ethical and moral standards, citizens can access the Conar portal, where at the top of the page there is a link to a complaint form. This complaint is received by Conar's Ethics Board and if the information is proven to be true, the complaint moves on to the second stage.

In this second phase, Conar's board of directors draws a rapporteur from among the more than one hundred members of the Ethics Council, the advertiser is informed of the complaint and can send a written defence. The Ethics Council meets to examine the ethics cases and the parties involved can attend the meetings and present their arguments to the counsellors.

Once the debates are over, the rapporteur announces his opinion, which is put to the vote. The decision is immediately communicated to the parties and, where appropriate, to the media. Once this process has been finalised and a complaint has been proven to be justified, the body will recommend that the advert be changed or suspended. Conar will never censor advertising, but will always seek to ensure that the material is appropriate.

HEARING

In addition to Conar, to make complaints about possible irregular advertising, Paraná residents can also count on Lottopar's hearing service. To access this channel, just click on the service tab on Lottopar's website, or in person at the authority's headquarters, at Rua Marechal Deodoro, 950 - 1st floor, in the centre of Curitiba, from Monday to Friday, from 8.30am to 12pm and from 1pm to 5.30pm, by telephone (41) 4009-3778, or by contacting the institution's ombudsman directly by email at ouvidoria@lottopar.pr.gov.br.

RESPONSIBLE ADVERTISING 

The ordinance published by Lottopar and Annex X of Conar contain rules to ensure that betting adverts are responsible, with particular attention to the need to protect children, adolescents and other people in vulnerable situations.

Advertisements must not lead to the understanding that gambling is about getting rich; games licensed and authorised by Lottopar are entertainment and not a way of recovering losses. Advertisements must not, either explicitly or implicitly, provide misleading or unrealistic information about the likelihood of winning bets, about the exemption or level of risk involved, induce the understanding that participation could lead to enrichment or that it constitutes a form of investment or income.

To protect children and teenagers, Lottopar, now together with Conar, is making sure that betting adverts do not include children and teenagers as participants or as a target audience. To this end, all adverts must clearly contain an ‘18+’ symbol or a ‘no-one under 18’ warning. People who appear in the segment's adverts, practising betting, playing a significant or prominent role, must be and appear to be over 21 years of age.