Justice ministry flags more than 4,000 profiles promoting illegal betting in Brazil
Enforcement & compliance2 min read
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice identified more than 4,000 profiles promoting illegal betting and notified digital platforms, the ministry said. A media investigation reported that tipsters were advising users on how to bypass the government’s betting prohibition, in force from 25 September, and that participants complained of unpaid winnings from an election-related pool.
Brazil's Ministry of Justice identified more than 4,000 profiles promoting illegal gambling and notified digital platforms of the breaches. Betting tipsters began offering advice on circumventing the government's betting ban from 25 September, according to an investigation by a Brazilian newspaper.
The justice ministry's digital rights secretariat's cyber operations laboratory identified 2,898 sites, about 700 TikTok and Instagram profiles, 1,295 Telegram groups and one Discord server promoting illegal gambling.
Meta said it was working to comply with government orders. A digital rights secretariat document obtained under access-to-information law said Meta had restricted at least 840 URLs at the authorities' request and removed another 590 pages on its own initiative since the provisional measure banning online betting was published. Discord and X did not provide consolidated figures on action against profiles promoting illegal betting. TikTok told the government it removed 27,882 advertisements between 25 September and 3 October, including 450 at the authorities' request. TikTok said it had always prohibited gambling advertising.
Influencer Diogo Pólvora, known as MD Tips, organised a pool on the presidential election run-off. By 31 October, participants' complaints about missing prizes had accumulated more than a thousand likes across 15 posts on X. For a victory by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Pólvora promised six times the amount wagered, to be deposited on prediction market platform Polymarket, which has been banned in Brazil since April. Polymarket had consistently estimated Lula's chance of winning at more than 12%, the benchmark for that level of return. The influencer did not respond when contacted by email, telephone and X messages. In a social media statement on 1 November, Pólvora said he had returned all participants' original deposits using his own funds. The statement blamed a contract breach by an unnamed supplier for the delay in payments.
Administrators in the monitored groups directed users to betting sites still accessible in Brazil. Discord channels Layback and Sharktool and Telegram channel Arkeiros Trading offered software for betting on Betfair, Kalshi and Polymarket. Users reported losing money while attempting to deposit on Polymarket, which requires cryptocurrency payments. Betfair owner Flutter confirmed a partnership with SharkTool, a sports trading software provider.
Offering sports betting predictions is prohibited under a provisional measure signed by Lula and classified as a consumer crime carrying up to one year in prison. A government-backed bill would criminalise the activity with a penalty of up to six years for betting intermediaries.
The finance ministry's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets has blocked more than 126 thousand illegal sites since oversight began in 2024 and also orders the blocking of financial accounts used in those operations.