Brazil’s Online Gambling Ban Coincides with Sharp Rise in Detected Illegal Betting Domains

Brazil’s prohibition on fixed-odds betting took effect through Provisional Measure 1,394, announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on September 25. The measure bars offering, operation, intermediation and advertising of such bets. Licensed operators must stop accepting new deposits and remove websites and apps by October 6, with licenses revoked on October 25.

Monitoring data shows a swift uptick in detected unauthorized domains immediately afterward. Bet Legal, run in partnership with Iron Security, identified 295 unauthorized betting domains by 6 p.m. on announcement day. The count reached 710 by Sunday evening, a 141% increase in two days, including 294 additional sites on Saturday alone. A separate BNLData survey recorded 6,401 new illegal sites between September 22 and 28, accelerating to 1,692 on Saturday and 3,024 on Sunday.

Scale of the Pre-Existing Illegal Market

The surge largely reflects detection rather than new market entrants. Of 322 domains with registration data, 320 had been purchased before the provisional measure, some dating to the late 1990s. “A count that multiplies to 3,000 on Sunday, while the other publishes 76, is recording a different event,” commented Diego Terrani, founder and chief executive of Iron Security, according to Next.io. He cautioned that registration dates do not show when domains began operating as betting platforms, as older ones can be repurposed.

Bet Legal verifies each site operates as a betting service, is absent from the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) licensed list, and excludes duplicates, for-sale domains and affiliate pages. Between January 1 and September 22 the SPA referred 57,691 addresses to Anatel for blocking. Since the measure, authorities have taken down 506 illegal websites and identified 43 Telegram groups and channels with more than 212,000 members.

The Enforcement Challenge Ahead

Industry groups contend the ban will enlarge the unregulated sector. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) stated: “Without authorisation, without the same regulatory obligations and operating outside the scope of oversight, the clandestine market continues to find space.” ANJL President Plínio Lemos Jorge warned that clandestine websites “will take advantage of the prohibition of legal betting to attract bettors to the illegal market.”

Approximately 31 million Brazilians use licensed platforms that provide age verification, taxpayer checks and self-exclusion tools. ANJL and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) have asked Justice Luiz Fux of the Supreme Federal Court to suspend the measure pending constitutional review, citing lack of demonstrated urgency. The National Association for Legal Certainty in Gaming and Betting (Anseja) filed a parallel challenge. Blocking by internet providers begins October 6, yet the pre-existing scale of unauthorized activity frames the core difficulty regulators now confront.

Reporting: World Casino News

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