Brazil suspends Pixbet, Flabet and Bet da Sorte over age-control failures

A court in Campina Grande has ordered the nationwide suspension of Pixbet Soluções Tecnológicas Ltda.’s online betting brands in Brazil, and the key issue is not subtle: the judge wants the operator to prove it can keep minors out. For high-risk PSPs, this is a clean reminder that age controls are not a compliance ornament; in Brazil, they can become the difference between keeping the line open and getting cut off.

1. On Tuesday, 14/7, the Juvenile and Youth Court of the District of Campina Grande ordered the nationwide suspension of Pixbet’s platforms Pixbet, Flabet and Bet da Sorte across Brazil. The ruling was issued by judge João Lucas as a liminar (preliminary injunction), and it stays in force until Pixbet proves it has implemented technological controls capable of preventing children and teenagers from accessing its platforms.
2. The case is Public Civil Action No. 0868998-67.2024.8.15.2001. The plaintiffs are the Centro de Defesa dos Direitos Humanos Padre Ezequiel Ramin, the association Francisco de Assis: Educação, Cidadania, Inclusão e Direitos Humanos, and Father Júlio Renato Lancellotti. Their argument was straightforward: Pixbet does not use sufficient controls to prevent minors from registering and using its services.
3. In the ruling, the judge relied on the Brazilian Constitution and the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), which provide for full protection and absolute priority for children and adolescents. He also cited Law No. 15.211/2025, known as the ECA Digital, which requires digital service providers to prevent minors from accessing gambling and betting content. The decision also refers to Interministerial Ordinance No. 73/2026, issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic, and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which reinforces the duty of companies in the sector to adopt effective barriers against minors and prohibits advertising aimed at children and adolescents.
4. The judge wrote that, in day-to-day experience and in reports circulating on the internet, children and adolescents continue to access betting platforms with relative ease, using the CPF numbers of parents, guardians, or third parties, often without any effective biometric verification at registration or during later transactions. In other words: paper controls are not enough if the platform still lets the wrong person walk through the front door.
5. To resume operations, Pixbet must show the court that it has adopted at least three technological measures: facial recognition with liveness detection at each access and financial transaction; biometric cross-checking against official databases; and automatic blocking of registrations made with a minor’s CPF. Pixbet has 48 hours from service of the order to comply with the suspension. If it does not, the company faces a daily fine of R$ 100,000, capped initially at R$ 100 million. The court also ordered notification of Anatel for a possible platform block if the order is ignored, along with notices to the Secretariat of Prizes and Apost...