Brazil blocks more than 13,000 illegal betting sites as nationwide ban takes hold

What happened

Brazil’s federal government said on Tuesday 6 October that it had sent 13,241 illegal betting websites for blocking between 25 September and 6 October — an average of about 1,103 a day. The work was carried out by the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat for Prizes and Betting (SPA) and Ciberlab, part of the National Public Security Secretariat.

The figures were published on the first day on which no betting platform is authorised to operate in the country, following a provisional measure that prohibited operating, offering, brokering and advertising bets in Brazil.

Social media and promotion

Authorities also requested the removal of 3,552 pages, profiles, channels, groups and servers. According to the government, content on Telegram, TikTok, WhatsApp and Discord alone reached around 17.2 million users, members and followers.

Finance Minister Dario Durigan said the government would continue to act against clandestine sites and betting-related content on social networks.

Money still owed to players

About R$1.3 billion remains to be returned to roughly 26.5 million bettors who still hold balances with the platforms. The government said the money is highly concentrated: 1% of bettors account for 80% of the remaining balance.

At the other end, 86.2 million accounts hold between R$0.01 and R$0.99. Officials noted that one person can hold accounts with several platforms, so the number of accounts is higher than the number of bettors.

Why it matters

Brazil had only recently built a licensed online betting market, and the reversal is one of the most significant regulatory shifts anywhere in the industry this year. For international operators and affiliates, it shows how quickly a market’s legal position can change.

Sources

Official support services