The Minister of Justice and Public Security of Brazil, Wellington César Lima e Silva, informed this Friday (19) that 25.2 million Brazilians place bets through illegal platforms in the country. Also this Friday, the government announced that it will block resources from illegal betting sites and send them to the public security fund, respecting the legal process. "We are talking about illegal betting sites representing something between 41% and 51% of the platforms that operate legally, it is a relevant number. We have already blocked more than 40,000 sites.
There are 25.2 million Brazilians betting on these platforms", declared the Minister of Justice. According to him, organized crime has "incentives" to migrate through the illegal betting sector. Therefore, he argues, it is fundamental that the government acts harshly against irregular companies. Now on g1 Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, mentioned that only 350 people, using 37 financial institutions — in general, "fintechs" or payment institutions — operated more than 40,000 illegal applications and sites shut down by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) at the request of the ministry's Secretariat for Prizes and Betting.
Repression This Thursday (18), the government carried out an operation against a criminal scheme involving billions in movement through illegal betting sites. 14 search and seizure warrants were executed in three states: Pernambuco, Ceará, and São Paulo. There were no arrests in this phase of the operation named Operation Tale of Luck (Conto da Sorte), carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco and the Federal Revenue Service. The warrants were issued by the 2nd Court of the District of Currais Novos, of the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Norte. Money seized in Operation Tale of Luck, launched in PE, SP, and CE MPRN/Disclosure The investigation began based on a technical analysis by the Secretariat for Prizes and Betting (SPA), of the Ministry of Finance, after the city of Bodó, a municipality in Rio Grande do Norte, created the autonomous agency Lotseridó. Before ending its activities, in October 2025, Lotseridó began to irregularly accredit fixed-quota betting companies, which "continue to operate in defiance of the SPA", according to the Federal Revenue Service. The amount moved by the illegal betting sites "will be revealed with the data collected in the searches, seizures, and breaches of confidentiality", but it reaches billions of reais.
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