Brazil identifies 221 new illegal betting sites during the Children’s Day holiday break

Brazil recorded 221 new illegal betting sites over the Children’s Day holiday break, according to a new monitoring sweep by Legitbet, the illegal-site tracking platform run by the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL). For high-risk payment businesses, the headline is simple: when regulated betting is pushed out, the unregulated web fills the gap fast — and with it come more exposed domains, more Telegram distribution, and more compliance noise.

1. From Friday, October 9, through Monday, October 12, Legitbet identified 221 new illegal betting sites in Brazil. Over the same period, it also found 1,439 suspicious links being shared in monitored channels, mainly on Telegram.
2. On the last day of the holiday break, Legitbet said 30,844 clandestine sites were still active and accessible in Brazil. That is the operating surface regulators, payment teams, and fraud teams are dealing with when traffic moves outside the licensed perimeter.
3. ANJL says the numbers show rising risks for children and adolescents after the ban on legalized betting, following the issuance of Medida Provisória 1.394 by the Brazilian federal government. Its point is not that players “migrated” in a clean line from legal to illegal sites — the legal platforms do not allow underage access — but that the growth of illegal domains also hits users under 18.
4. Plínio Lemos Jorge, president of ANJL, said the end of the regulated market has had “perverse” consequences. He pointed to controls available in the licensed market, including facial recognition access tools, which he said prevented contact between betting platforms and minors, something he says does not exist in the illegal market.
5. “When you have thousands and thousands of illegal sites available on the web and, in addition, more than a thousand circulating in channels like Telegram, it is undeniable that the virtual harassment from these clandestine platforms also grows over children and adolescents,” Lemos Jorge said. “And the greater the harassment, the greater the number of accesses from a public that, in the regulated market, is not allowed to bet, as Brazilian regulation provides.”

ANJL was launched in March 2023 and says it represents operators across betting, lotteries, gaming technology, and related services, with members including Aposta Ganha Loterias, Fast Gaming, OiG Gaming Brazil, Ana Gaming Brasil, Esportes Gaming Brasil, SPRBT Interactive Brasil, Defy, LBBR Aposta de Quota Fixa, Lucky Gaming, Reals Brasil, Gamewiz Brasil, BETBR Loterias, Versus Brasil, SorteNaBet Gaming Brasil, Blow Marketplace, Sistema Lotérico de Pernambuco, Vanguard Entretenimento Brasil, Hiper Bet Tecnologia, Pocket Games, ODDSGATE Brasil, Upbet Brasil, EB Intermediações, Big Brazil Tecnologia e Loteria, EBAC, TaDa Gaming, BB Gaming, Legitimuz Tecnologia, and JogaJunto.