Lawyer reports 290 new illegal betting sites daily at Brazil court hearing

Lawyer Bernardo Freire presented monitoring data on illegal betting sites at a public hearing in the Supreme Federal Court. Justice Luiz Fux, rapporteur of the cases against Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, convened the hearing, which continued on Tuesday 3 November with lawyers for football clubs. Freire spoke on behalf of the club Associação Atlética Ponte Preta.

Freire said a monitoring company, which he described as the tool the Federal Police chose against the illegal market, flagged "61 mil" illegal sites roughly one month into the prohibition. Of that total, "37 mil" had already been confirmed, he said. The lawyer put the average at "290" new sites per day, with "770" new links recorded on a single day. On Instagram, he said, "80%" of betting advertising now comes from illegal operators. The Friday before the hearing, his team found profiles with "mais de 100 milhões de seguidores" in total promoting clandestine platforms. As Freire described it, a user opens an account with any email address or phone number, and no age is verified. He added that these sites take crypto and credit cards, payment methods banned in the regulated market. The lawyer said the material would be attached to the case file along with a video of the navigation.

Freire argued that more bettors must be moved into the legal market, where the state can apply controls. He cited England and Denmark as having channelling of about 95%. He said the protections created by regulation no longer apply to those who migrated to the illegal market. Freire presented data obtained through the access-to-information law, which he said showed more betting-related health care visits among illegal-market bettors than among regulated-market bettors. He used the data to challenge the health justification for the provisional measure. Freire said India, which banned betting in 2025, has one in three bettors operating underground, moving R$100bn a year. For Brazil, he estimated an illegal market of R$25bn in 2026, with an upward trend in 2027.

Freire said Ponte Preta has an accumulated deficit of R$41m and will play in the lower divisions next year. The club's request was for the measure to be revised or, at least, for an adjustment deadline to be set.

Grêmio's lawyer said article 16 of the measure gave clubs 10 days. According to that lawyer, 14 of the 20 Série A clubs had a betting company as master sponsor. Grêmio proposed keeping the ban on online casino while preserving sports betting under strict regulation, with advertising restrictions and a transition period.

André Cirino, lawyer for Esporte Clube Vitória, said the club earns R$290m a year and that betting companies and signage accounted for R$45m, almost 17% of revenue. He said the contract was suspended soon after the measure was published and the club had gone two months without payment. Cirino asked for the measure to be suspended.