Brazil’s Ministry of Finance removes 937 influencer pages and fines betting platforms nearly R$ 4 million

Between January 2025 and June 2026, Brazil’s Ministry of Finance took down 937 influencer pages for breaching online betting rules. For operators and PSPs, the useful part is not the headline number but the enforcement pattern: the regulator is moving against both illegal acquisition channels and licensed-market advertising violations.

1. According to data obtained through access-to-information requests and reported by Folha de S.Paulo, 803 of the removed profiles were promoting clandestine betting platforms, while 134 violated rules in the regulated market. The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets also identified two cases involving betting logos displayed on sports uniforms worn by children.
2. In the licensed market, the agency opened 86 monitoring cases covering digital influencers and electronic advertising. Five of those cases moved into the administrative phase and resulted in three fines totaling almost R$ 4 million.
3. The illegal market is still active despite the removal of more than 50,000 web pages since 2025. Industry estimates cited in the text say a clandestine bet can be launched with an investment of R$ 10,000, which makes the usual whack-a-mole problem very literal: shut one domain, another one appears.
4. The Ministry of Finance also removed 243 illegal betting apps from the Google and Apple stores this year. The platforms started allowing distribution of gambling apps in 2026, which gives operators another channel to watch closely, especially if their compliance setup was built for web-only distribution.
5. Brazilian law reserves the right to advertise online sports betting and slots to licensed operators only. The license costs R$ 30 million, plus fees and taxes, and advertising must meet transparency, ad-identification, minor-protection, and responsible-gambling warning requirements. On paper that sounds straightforward; in practice, this is exactly where a lot of affiliates and influencer campaigns drift offside.

The Secretariat also opened 46 enforcement cases focused on the protection of children and adolescents, mostly around bets on youth competitions, including matches in the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior. Separately, it opened 102 enforcement cases against 48 operators on self-exclusion, prevention of underage participation, gambling addiction, and player-protection mechanisms.

One named case stood out: Fla.bet.br, a brand linked to former Flamengo sponsor Pixbet, received a warning for offering bets on the Canadian elections, the outcome of the 2025 Conclave, and the winner of the Eurovision song contest. That is a neat reminder that in Brazil, prohibited betting markets are not just about sports.