🔍 Brazil🇧🇷: banks and fintechs come under scrutiny in the fight against illegal gambling

🔍 Brazil🇧🇷: banks and fintechs come under scrutiny in the fight against illegal gambling

Since June 2026, authorities have required financial institutions to freeze funds held by unlicensed betting operators. This means that, in addition to illegal operators, intermediaries and financial infrastructure are now also subject to regulatory scrutiny.

⏩ Pressure on fintechs

🟢 In March 2025, the Ministry of Finance prohibited banks and payment institutions from maintaining accounts for unlicensed betting operators and required them to report suspicious transactions to the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) within 24 hours.

🟢 In July 2026, the government issued warnings to 37 fintechs suspected of processing funds for 60 illegal operators.

⏩ #Pix has also appeared on regulators' radar: according to Central Bank data from last year, the platform processes transactions worth between USD 3 billion and USD 5.8 billion per month (although this figure covers the entire betting sector, not just illegal operators).

⏩ The Central Bank recommends checking whether the payment recipient shows warning signs, such as:

⏬ absence of the bet.br domain, used by all licensed operators;

⏬ use of credit cards, checks or cryptocurrencies;

⏬ lack of identity verification;

⏬ AML violations;

⏬ promises of “guaranteed income.”

⏩ The Council for Financial Activities Control (COAF) has strengthened AML checks.

🟢 In 2025, 27,600 reports concerning lotteries and fixed-odds betting were recorded, compared with just 928 the previous year. (This does not mean that all transactions were illegal.)

🟢 That same year, 54 financial service providers submitted 1,255 transaction reports to the SPA, resulting in 550 accounts linked to illegal operators being closed.

⏩ Automation of control mechanisms: a parliamentary committee approved a bill providing for a special procedurefor betting-related transactions, the implementation of filters based on the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) and Pix keys, as well as the automatic delivery of notifications in customers' account statements.

⏩ According to the Ministry of Justice, 25.2 million Brazilians participate in the illegal segment, which accounts for between 41% and 51% of active operators in the country. By mid-2026, more than 40,000 websites had been blocked.

⏩ Context: in August 2026, the SPA suspended 14 licensed betting operators for violations related to player monitoring and the submission of information to the state betting management system (Sigap), which tracks transactions and compliance in real time. In addition to license suspensions, violators must pay a daily fine of USD 38,557.

#news #Brazil #gambling #betting

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