Brazil orders betting sites to redirect to government portal
Brazil has ordered online betting companies to redirect their websites and apps to a government-run information service when the country’s licensed gambling market shuts down on October 6.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security has told Brazilian gambling sites that their existing portals must point visitors towards the government’s new Brasil sem Bets service rather than simply disappearing from the internet.
The requirement is the latest step in implementing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s extraordinary decision to prohibit fixed-odds sports betting and online casino gaming less than two years after Brazil’s regulated market opened.
Operators must stop providing gambling from October 6, with players having until 23:59 on October 5 to withdraw balances directly from their accounts. After that deadline, outstanding player funds must still be returned through a government-supervised process involving financial institutions.
The Brasil sem Bets website will provide information explaining how customers can recover remaining money and will also carry government messaging about gambling-related harm and debt.
The redirection requirement means some of the world’s largest gambling brands will effectively be required to use their own Brazilian internet traffic to send former customers to a government anti-gambling service.
Operators attempting to avoid the shutdown by using alternative domains or other technical measures could face substantial penalties, with sanctions reaching up to R$2billion under the new regime.
The licensed industry is fighting back.
The National Association of Games and Lotteries has criticised the redirection requirement and the wider shutdown, while operators have already taken their challenge to Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court.
The government has simultaneously hardened its own legal position. Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office has asked the Supreme Court to declare key provisions of the 2018 and 2023 laws that legalised and subsequently regulated fixed-odds betting unconstitutional.
The AGU argues that the regulatory framework failed to adequately protect fundamental rights and public health, with this creating an extraordinary situation.
Operators paid R$30 million each for five-year federal licences that became effective when Brazil’s regulated market formally launched in January 2025.
Those licences are now being terminated by the same federal government less than two years later, without compensation under the provisional measure.
The industry argues the decision is legally questionable and risks handing Brazilian players back to illegal offshore operators, but the government says the opposite.
Finance Minister Dario Durigan says the prohibition on new deposits has already effectively stopped transactions through the regulated industry.
According to Durigan, licensed betting companies had previously been processing around R$600 million per day, with this figure effectively falling to zero after the provisional measure took effect.
Player balances held by operators have also fallen sharply. The industry initially reported around R$2.1 billion sitting in customer accounts. That had fallen to approximately R$1.4 billion as players withdrew their money.
Brazilian authorities are separately examining 48 betting accounts containing balances of more than R$500,000 each because of potential money-laundering concerns.
The next deadline is now extremely close, with players having until October 5 to make their withdrawals, with the regulated industry due to close the following day.
