Brazil launches offensive against 2,000 illegal gambling sites

Brazil has been moving to rapidly reorganize its gambling industry, which is now being finalized with the final details and the first licenses set to be paid in several months' time. The country set a cut-off period for any unauthorized website by October to receive an accreditation from the Ministry of Finance, before proceeding to obtaining a full license next year, with websites that have failed to comply to be evicted from the jurisdiction.

Brazil goes after 2,000 illegal websites

This is now happening with the country moving against 2,050-odd websites that it has identified as providing their services without the necessary permission from the government. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who signed the law regulating gambling in the country in December 2023, has been adamant about ensuring that consumers are protected.

Recently, he even hazarded that even though gambling has been now legalized, the president’s office would not think twice about rolling back the entire framework should it prove too detrimental to society.

Various sources put the number of people gambling online at different tallies. One source by the government cites that more than 52m people are now online and betting, which makes it all the more urgent to ensure that unregulated websites are blocked out quickly. However, the Banco Central do Brasil says that the number of online bettors is around 24m.

Presently, nearly 100 companies are authorized to run various gambling brands, with a total of some 210 websites.

Consumer protection yes – but also self-preservation

The temporary licenses – or authorizations – will be replaced by a full license as soon as the companies that hold them pay $5.3m starting from January 1, 2025, and uphold rigorous industry standards for money laundering, fraud, consumer protection, advertisements and more.

Part of these safeguards, for example, include ensuring that welfare aid is not misused for the purposes of gambling, although this item is still a work in progress.

Part of the government’s sweeping action against illegal gambling sites, though, is seen as self-preservation, as the revenue windfall generated through gambling would help plug deficit gaps.

Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has said that unregulated websites have become a "pandemic" and that would now require the government’s intervention to clear matters up as well as safeguard consumers.

"Anyone who is not regularized, or in the process of being regularized, is being taken off the air," Haddad warned sternly.

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