Brazil’s Justice Ministry notifies Apple and Google over illegal betting apps

The Ministry of Justice has notified Apple and Google over betting apps in their stores that allegedly operate without authorization in Brazil and without age verification. For high-risk operators, the point is simple: app-store distribution is now part of the licensing and compliance stack, not just a marketing channel.

1. The notices were signed by Victor Oliveira Fernandes, National Secretary of Digital Rights, and Ricardo Morishita, National Secretary of Consumer Affairs, and were accessed by TV Globo after g1 reported on them.
2. The documents say the two companies’ app stores make available betting apps without authorization to operate and without a mechanism to verify users’ ages. In Brazil, betting websites and apps need authorization from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets of the Ministry of Finance (SPA/MF) to operate.
3. Brazilian law also bars minors under 18 from accessing betting products. The Digital Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA) Digital, in force since March 2026, requires betting platforms to have age-verification mechanisms to meet that requirement.
4. This is not the first notice. Apple and Google had already been notified in April 2026 after a routine review by ministry staff, who found “numerous apps” that would promote, offer, or enable access to fixed-odds betting and other lottery products without SPA/MF authorization and with no effective age control.
5. On 29 June 2026, a new review by the ministry found the same irregularities still present on both platforms. The latest notices ask Apple and Google for more information on the mechanisms they use to ensure that users under 18 do not access inappropriate content.

The ministry said the measure is not a punishment against Apple or Google. The companies did not respond to g1 by the publication deadline.