ANJL legal adviser says banning licensed betting operators would hand users to Brazil’s illegal market

Bernardo Freire, legal adviser to ANJL and co-founder of BetLaw, told a Globo publishing seminar that banning regulated betting companies would push users toward clandestine platforms. His argument is straightforward: once the legal channel is weakened, the illegal one gets a larger share of deposits, and the compliance problems get worse, not better.

1. Freire made the remarks on Friday (14) during Desafios pós-regulamentação do mercado de apostas, a seminar promoted by the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) in partnership with Editora Globo.
2. He called any possible ban on licensed betting companies “conivência com o crime” and said there was no basis, relevance, or urgency for removing online betting operators that are already legalised and regulated.
3. His key warning for the market is the one that matters to PSPs and acquirers: if legal operators are removed, users do not disappear, they migrate. Freire said 40% of the population already accesses the illegal market, and argued that shutting the legal market would push the remaining 60% there as well.
4. He linked that shift to weaker controls on anti-money laundering, debt exposure, and ludopatia (problem gambling), saying regulated companies take care with LGPD (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados), AML, and the protection of minors, while illegal platforms do not carry the same obligations.
5. Freire also said authorised companies need increasingly stronger tools to identify risky behavior and suspicious transactions, but without crossing the line on user data rights. In his framing, the regulated model only works if monitoring, data protection, and reporting duties to the authorities stay in balance.

The practical takeaway for Brazil is simple: in this vertical, regulation is not just about licensing. It is the control layer that determines whether transaction monitoring, responsible gambling checks, and suspicious-activity reporting happen inside the system or get pushed into the shadows.