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The head of Brazil’s gambling regulator has laid out how they plan to combat illegal gambling as enforcement activities against unauthorised platforms and influencers heat up.
Regis Dudena, the head of Brazil’s Secretariat for Prizes and Bets (SPA), told the assembled audience at the Third Sports Integrity Summit hosted by Genius Sports and GovRisk in Sao Paulo on September 5 that regulators plan to tackle illegal sites partially by blocking access to those platforms.
“We have stepped up, we have already started conversations with social media platforms to ensure that links from illegal companies are banned in Brazil,” he said.
Dudena also said he had spoken with a prominent search engine about excluding unauthorised online betting platforms from search results.
“The provision of links in searches can be understood as a type of communication that borders on advertising. So, you are advocating for a legal site, to the extent that you authorise this link. We are doing it carefully, but the important thing is for them to know that they are cooperating with us.”
The outright blocking of illegal sites has so far proved to be technically problematic in Brazil, albeit in the absence of the specific federal regulatory regime that Dudena’s agency is in the process of implementing.
A judge in the state of Rio de Janeiro in June ordered the federal telecoms regulator Anatel to block sites the state had not licensed despite being told by telecoms providers that it would not be possible to do so on a state-specific basis. Upon enforcement, additional sites had been blocked and other users from outside the state of Rio de Janeiro could not access sites.
Last week, a São Paulo state court similarly ordered Anatel to block 15 sites that provided financial services that facilitate payments between institutions and illegal betting sites.
Dudena also noted in his comments that regulators are working to shut down illicit payment channels.
“We are strengthening our relationship with the Central Bank [of Brazil] so that we have mechanisms available to monitor and shut down payment methods that provide illegal services," Dudena said.
Although the regulated market has yet to launch, media attention on offshore betting sites continues to amp up amid scrutiny by national lawmakers in Brasilia and as law enforcement focuses on the role of prominent social media influencers in particular.
Last week, prominent influencer Deolane Bezerra was arrested for allegedly facilitating money laundering via betting platform Esportes da Sorte.
The arrest of Bezerra and the alleged involvement of Esportes da Sorte, one of the largest operators in the currently unregulated market, has attracted a series of articles in mainstream media in Brazil.
According to state prosecutors in Pernambuco in Northeastern Brazil, Esportes da Sorte was established to launder the proceeds of Brazil’s illegal numbers game jogo do bicho. Bezerra was pivotal to the operation because of her role as a brand ambassador in attracting players to the platform via her massive social-media following, according to prosecutors.
Her Instagram account boasts 21m followers and she was once called in for a photo opportunity with current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to court young voters.
In a video statement, the legal director of Esportes da Sorte said the company and its founders were fully cooperating with the police investigation and would be able to prove their innocence, including through the use of fully authorised payment channels.
The company remains committed to responsible gaming and a regulated market, the company official said.
The SPA’s federal enforcement actions for operators without licences will begin on January 1, 2025.
Additional reporting by James Kilsby.
