Brazil police investigate lawyer over R$6.6bn Blaze betting turnover

Brazil's Federal Police are examining lawyer Willer Tomaz over financial transactions tied to online gambling platforms that they consider suspicious, court documents obtained by CNN Brasil indicate. The records, raise the possibility that certain transactions served to conceal money movements. According to those documents, Tomaz's play on Blaze casino games alone reached R$6.6bn ($1.3bn), with net losses of roughly $29m across a betting volume exceeding 53,000 wagers.

A Finance Ministry report issued separately found that Tomaz's wagers during 2025 amounted to R$5bn (approximately $995m), with Blaze accounting for most of that activity. Such figures measure turnover, meaning winnings that were staked again, and not what he put in or lost. Per officials, he put in more than R$258m ($51m) and took out around R$200m ($40m); the amount he deposited was close to twice that of the country's second-largest bettor.

Blaze drew criticism in the Finance Ministry report for weak anti-money-laundering safeguards, with the operator accused of not properly examining the scale of Tomaz's betting. The report pointed to a single day featuring 14 deposits of R$500,000 apiece, and to another on which 12 withdrawals of the same size were completed within 18 minutes. Blaze maintains that it follows gambling rules and runs strict monitoring of transactions. Tomaz, for his part, says the money was lawfully acquired and reported to tax authorities, and he contests the government's numbers.

In a separate action, Tomaz is seeking R$163m (approximately $32m) from Blaze over gambling losses he alleges, saying he is addicted to gambling. Last week a judge in São Paulo threw out the case, pointing out that Tomaz himself had asked for dedicated blackjack tables allowing wagers as high as R$500,000 ($99,000) a hand.

Folha de S.Paulo reported on 21 October that BestBet, an online gambling site run through companies tied to Tomaz, brought in just R$210,000 ($42,000) from December 2023 through June 2025. Rede Loto, the operator, had spent R$5m (roughly $1m) on a five-year licence issued by Loterj, Rio de Janeiro's state lottery regulator. By the close of 2025, BestBet had projected R$2.1m in revenue, which is ten times what it reported earning across the 18 months reviewed. Tomaz says BestBet was never actually run, yet Folha reported that filings with Loterj recorded revenue and that company correspondence mentioned advertising via social media, email and physical signage.

Licensed sportsbooks and online casinos were told by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to close by 6 October, a step that effectively ended the country's recently regulated online betting market. That prohibition came through an executive decree, is being contested in court and cannot become permanent without approval from Congress. As magazine piauí investigated, the Federal Police are trying to determine whether Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's opponent in Sunday's presidential runoff, had a hidden stake in BestBet. Rede Loto owned BestBet, and Cathedral Holdings, a firm Tomaz set up on Portugal's Madeira island, controlled Rede Loto.

According to piauí, Cathedral and Alcazar Holdings, another Madeira company, have the same owner, administrator and registered address, and the magazine also found apparent financial ties linking the two. Documents that piauí reviewed reportedly named Bolsonaro and Tomaz as privileged "master users" of an Alcazar bank account; both men deny this. Police have asked Brazil's Supreme Court to authorize a probe into whether Bolsonaro was a concealed investor, the magazine said. It was reported that a business connected to Cathedral covered the cost of private-jet flights Bolsonaro took in Europe.

Tomaz rejects any wrongdoing and maintains that Bolsonaro held no stake of any kind in BestBet. The Bolsonaro campaign says the two are simply friends and dismisses any suggestion of misconduct.