Brazil’s SPA-MF has taken down 56,000 illegal betting sites and is blocking payment flows

Brazil’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA-MF) says it has removed more than 56,000 illegal betting sites since its enforcement operations began, while also moving to cut off the money behind them. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the important part is the mechanism: the regulator is no longer treating rogue betting as just a content problem, but as a payments problem too.

1. Daniele Cardoso, the SPA-MF secretary, said in an interview on the Podnews podcast from SBT News that the agency has intensified action against clandestine platforms, alongside new advertising rules and consumer protection measures. She said more than 1 million people have sought self-exclusion.
2. The regulated sector moved almost R$ 37 billion in 2025, according to the agency’s annual balance sheet. Of that total, around R$ 4 billion went to public bodies through so-called social allocation, equal to 12% of collections. Cardoso said bills currently under discussion have already raised that percentage to 15%. The funds are distributed among the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Sport, Ministry of Justice, and other entities.
3. On illegal betting, the SPA launched what Cardoso called a strategy of “financial asphyxiation.” A recent decree says financial institutions and payment institutions cannot process transactions tied to illegal bets. “Financial institutions cannot process financial transactions for illegal bets,” she said. The agency uses monitoring of those flows to identify the legal entities behind the operations and close their banking relationships. Blocked funds are sent to the Senate for review.
4. The agency is also moving on the advertising chain. A recent ordinance extended joint liability to individuals and companies that publish, spread, or amplify illegal platforms, including digital influencers. The SPA signed a cooperation agreement with Conselho Digital, which brings together major tech platforms, to make it easier to identify and remove irregular profiles and content. It also works with CONAR, which continuously monitors social networks and has issued a specific guide for influencers.
5. Authorized betting operators are under a separate set of ad restrictions. Children and teenagers cannot be the target audience or appear in ads. Operators cannot present betting as a substitute for income, investment, or social advancement. Every ad must display the 18+ indicative classification symbol and mandatory warning phrases defined by the Ministry of Finance, including “betting can cause dependence” and “betting makes you lose money.” Licensed platforms are identified by the .bet.br domain in the URL and must use facial recognition to block minors.

For high-risk payment companies, Brazil’s message is pretty clear: if a transaction touches illegal betting, the regulator wants the rails themselves to help stop it. That raises the bar on merchant screening, monitoring, and downstream response when a betting operation moves from being merely suspicious to explicitly prohibited.