Illegal betting platforms keep operating in Brazil as licensed sites prepare to shut down

Brazil’s new betting restrictions are hitting licensed operators first, while unlicensed sites keep taking deposits and accepting wagers. For PSPs and acquirers, that’s the practical split that matters: the regulated channel gets blocked, the illegal one keeps moving money.

1. On Friday, September 25, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a provisional measure that bans new deposits at licensed betting companies and requires their websites and apps to be disabled from Tuesday, October 6.
2. Veja reported video evidence of bets placed on a platform described as irregular. The publication deposited R$ 20, played Tigrinho, and saw the balance fall to R$ 0,27 in less than half an hour. Tigrinho, the popular name for Fortune Tiger, is a virtual slot machine included in the list of online games covered by the ban.
3. The report also showed betting markets open for the Brazil vs. Australia friendly played on Tuesday, September 29. One site displayed different possible outcomes and the payouts for correct picks; another offered a R$ 0,30 bonus on returning to the homepage, with a fivefold increase available after making another deposit.
4. A study by LCA Consultoria Econômica, commissioned by the Brazilian Responsible Gaming Institute (IBJR), estimated that illegal operators accounted for between 38% and 44% of bets and moved between R$ 32,9 billion and R$ 43,3 billion per year.
5. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) said that on Saturday, September 26, it detected 1.689 domains classified as illegal betting sites, with 1.197 of them confirmed to have live betting pages. Between Thursday, September 24, and Saturday, September 26, the association detected 4.189 domains, of which 1.418 had active pages.

ANJL shared examples of domains it classifies as irregular, including h2bet.games, qgbet.site, jonbet.top, betao.top, esportiva.win, vaidebet.top, betfast.games, kingpanda.win, sorteonline.site, novibet.site and bigbet.site. Some use names similar to federally authorized operators such as H2bet and Novibet, but they do not use the .bet.br ending required of licensed companies in Brazil.