Brazilian authorities have taken down 506 websites suspected of offering illegal betting as the government expands its digital monitoring campaign following the country’s new ban on fixed-odds betting.
The joint operation, led by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Ministry of Finance, is also tracking betting advertising across major online platforms and monitoring dozens of Telegram channels promoting betting and online casino games.
506 Sites Removed From the Market
The government task force identified 506 websites showing signs of irregular betting activity after the new measure was published.
Authorities said the operation is designed not only to block existing unauthorised platforms but also to prevent operators from simply moving to new domains once their previous addresses are taken down.
The task force brings together several government bodies, including the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting and security, consumer protection and digital rights departments within the Ministry of Justice.
Betting Ads Remain Active Online
Government monitoring has also found that betting advertising continued to circulate on Google, Meta and TikTok after the new restrictions came into force.
The Cyber Operations Laboratory (Ciberlab) identified around 1,900 betting advertisements on Google. Authorities said they could not determine from that group how many ads were newly published and how many had already been active before the prohibition.
On Meta, seven betting advertisements were identified, with two reportedly starting after the new measure took effect.
Some of the ads used page names that differed from the brands being promoted, while their links pointed to domains that did not match the advertised brands. According to Ciberlab, these characteristics could indicate attempts to conceal the identity of advertisers or the final destination of traffic.
The government says monitoring will continue, with authorities asking major technology platforms to strengthen their detection of disguised pages and masked links.
Telegram Becomes Another Focus
The crackdown is also moving beyond conventional websites and advertising networks.
Authorities identified 43 Telegram channels and groups promoting betting and online casino games, collectively reaching around 212,600 members.
The groups reportedly promoted betting “signals”, casino strategies and links to betting platforms, alongside claims of returns as high as 260% per month and alleged success rates of up to 99.8%.
The information was sent to the relevant government authorities for technical and administrative assessment and possible enforcement action.
Government Targets New Routes Around the Ban
The wider enforcement strategy is focused on preventing betting activity from simply shifting between domains, social networks, apps and closed online communities.
The government has said the operation is intended to address the full digital distribution chain rather than relying solely on blocking individual betting websites.
Data cited by Agência Brasil from Bet Legal, a monitoring platform operated by cybersecurity company Iron Security, also indicated that hundreds of unauthorised betting domains had been detected following the government’s announcement.
However, the monitoring data counts domains when they are detected and does not establish when individual sites were created.
With website blocking, advertising monitoring and social-media enforcement now operating in parallel, Brazil’s post-ban betting crackdown is expanding well beyond the removal of licensed operators from the market.
Source: Agência Brasil