Brazil’s Finance Ministry says more than 60,000 illegal betting sites have been blocked, with new rules due by early August

Brazil’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting told Congress it has expanded the crackdown on illegal sportsbooks, with site blocking now automated and additional measures on payments and fraud recovery on the way. For PSPs and acquirers, the important part is not the headline number; it is that Brazil is now pairing domain blocking with financial controls, which is how these regimes start to bite.

1. Subsecretary of Monitoring and Enforcement Carlos Renato Resende said the fight against illegal bets started manually in January last year and became automated in October. He said more than 60,000 illegal sites have already been blocked.
2. Brazil has allowed fixed-odds betting since 2018 under Law 13.756/18, and in 2023 the so-called Bets Law added new state control tools. Resende said the Anti-Gang and Organized Crime Law also created mechanisms to prevent illegal betting operations from being used for money laundering.
3. The Ministry of Finance is in contact with the National Financial System to create new rules, with publication expected by the beginning of August. Resende also announced measures to block funds from illegal companies and to reimburse fraud victims: if blocked money is claimed by a harmed consumer, it can be returned, and if the legal entity cannot prove the lawful origin of the funds, the money will be forfeited to the Brazilian state and sent to the National Public Security Fund.
4. Some of these actions follow recommendations from the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) under Acórdão 1296/26, approved in May. TCU external governance controller Wesley Vaz called for joint action by the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, Receita Federal, Anatel, and the Federal Police to better block domains, stop financial flows, and sanction illegal operators.
5. Locomotiva Institute research presented on Tuesday put illegal bets at 38% to 41% of the Brazilian market, down from a prior reading of 41% to 51%. LCA Consultoria director Eric Brasil said that implies an 11% drop in the illegal market, while also noting that the illegal share remains large by international standards.

For payment providers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: Brazil is moving from website takedowns to a fuller enforcement stack that includes domain blocking, financial monitoring, and asset seizure. That is the point where onboarding, merchant monitoring, and transaction routing start to matter much more than just keeping an eye on the regulator’s press releases.