Brazil purges 60,000 betting sites

• Brazil’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA/MF) has blocked more than 60,000 illegal betting websites, undersecretary Carlos Renato Resende told the Chamber of Deputies on 11 August.
• Automated blocking began in October, following manual monitoring since January 2025, as authorities also move to freeze funds tied to illegal operators.
• New Instituto Locomotiva research puts the illegal market at 38% to 44% of Brazil’s betting activity, down from a prior estimate of 41% to 51%.

Brazil’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA/MF) has blocked more than 60,000 illegal betting websites, undersecretary for monitoring and enforcement Carlos Renato Resende told a Chamber of Deputies hearing on 11 August.

The figures were presented to the External Commission on Acts of Piracy, as the ministry set out a widening strategy that pairs domain blocking with new financial enforcement powers.

Blocking goes automatic

Fixed-odds betting has been legal in Brazil since 2018 under Law 13,756/18, and the 2023 Betting Law (Law 14,790/23) added further state controls. Resende said monitoring began manually in January 2025, before the SPA/MF automated the blocking process in October, sharply increasing the pace of takedowns.

“Nowhere in the world has an illegal market been completely eradicated. In Brazil, we have other markets subject to piracy, and the difficulty is the same.”

Chasing the money trail

Beyond domain blocking, the SPA/MF is coordinating with Brazil’s financial system to curb money laundering through illegal platforms. Resende said the Anti-Faction and Organized Crime Law has created new procedures for handling laundering risks tied to unauthorised operators, and the ministry is consulting the National Financial System on further rules.

Authorities can now also freeze funds linked to illegal operators. Consumers who can prove part of the frozen money belongs to them may claim compensation; funds an operator cannot show a lawful origin for are forfeited to the state.

Carlos Renato Resende explained:

“When this money is blocked, the affected consumer may come forward and prove that part of this money belongs to them, so they can be compensated. At the end of the process, if the legal entity cannot prove the lawful origin of the money, the funds will be forfeited to the Brazilian state and allocated to the National Public Security Fund to combat crime in general.”

The push follows recommendations in TCU Decision (Acórdão) 1296/2026, approved by Brazil’s Federal Court of Accounts in May, which called for coordinated action across the Finance Ministry, Central Bank, Federal Revenue Service, Anatel and Federal Police.

Wesley Vaz, Secretary of External Governance Control at the TCU, said:

“There is a need for the state to better block domains, interrupt financial flows, and sanction illegal operators.”

A shrinking shadow market

New research from Instituto Locomotiva estimates illegal operators still account for 38% to 44% of Brazil’s betting market, an improvement on the institute’s earlier estimate of 41% to 51%. The survey, which polled 2,291 people, was carried out in May.

Brazilian lawmakers have previously flagged a data gap on the true scale of the illegal market.

Eric Brasil, director at LCA Consultoria, said:

“What this represents, in a simple estimate, is an 11% decline in the illegal market. The good news is that the illegal market appears to be shrinking. What is concerning is that, when compared with other jurisdictions and countries, we still have a very large illegal market.”

For context, the Netherlands recorded the highest illegal share among the comparator markets cited at 51%, just above Brazil, while Ireland was lowest at 3%, ahead of Sweden at 6% and the UK at 8%.

The Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR) noted that licensed operators already face a string of requirements, including traceable payments, facial biometric identification, an under-18 betting ban, tax obligations, in-house anti-money laundering systems and mandatory reporting of suspicious transactions.

At the same hearing, Letícia Ferraz, director of the Laboratory of Human Rights and New Technologies (Labsul), linked uncontrolled betting activity to over-indebtedness and mental health harms, and said the lab plans to produce an educational guide for bettors and consumers.

Betting policy is shaping up as a central plank of President Lula’s reelection campaign, and the scale of the illegal market will keep shaping how far Brasília is willing to go on both blocking and taxation.