Brazil has launched a significant new legal mechanism designed to cut off funding to unauthorised online gambling operators through the country’s financial system.
Decree No. 13,033, signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 19 June, creates a formal route to freeze accounts held by unauthorised fixed-odds betting operators.
The decree also allows the federal government to pursue forfeiture of those funds and direct confirmed proceeds to the National Public Security Fund for use against organised crime.
The measure regulates Article 21-A of Brazil’s fixed-odds betting law, a provision added this year through the Anti-Faction Law.
Enforcement powers now extend beyond simple web blocking, with the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting given a defined role in identifying illegal operators and initiating account restrictions.
The secretariat may act following market monitoring, a substantiated complaint, or information indicating electronic fraud, with any irregularity notice required to identify the operator, websites, apps, evidence, and accounts to be blocked.
Banks, payment institutions, and payment system operators must act within 24 hours of receiving a blocking notice and must also prevent new transactions that could support the unlicensed business.
Those institutions then have 48 hours after the block to confirm compliance with the secretariat, while the Central Bank receives notice of each order and supervises compliance throughout.
The decree gives the Central Bank and secretariat 90 days to establish a secure electronic notification system, with digital certification through the federal government’s electronic system in the meantime.
Account holders will not be warned before restrictions take effect but must subsequently receive the notice, the factual basis for the finding, and details of their defence rights.
The freeze itself is a precautionary measure rather than a final sanction, with the National Public Security Secretariat required to open an administrative forfeiture process and grant operators 15 days to submit a defence.
Even a final administrative finding does not end the matter, as the Attorney General’s Office must bring a court action before funds can be forfeited and transferred.
The Finance Ministry has previously stated that its Secretariat of Prizes and Bets asked Anatel, the National Telecommunications Agency, to block nearly 50,000 illegal betting websites since 2025, along with about 350 linked operators.
In April, Brazil also blocked 27 prediction-market platforms and barred derivative contracts linked to sports, online games, elections, and other social outcomes.
Lula has publicly backed a return to a nationwide ban on online betting, though he admitted in April that Congress would need to approve any such reversal.
A related order, Ordinance No. 1,766/2026, published alongside the decree, allows the government to introduce joint liability for financial institutions, payment service providers, and advertisers regarding taxes associated with unlicensed betting operations.
Together, the measures are designed to discourage payment processors and financial institutions from supporting the unlicensed gambling market in Brazil.
