Brazil's Secretariat for Prizes and Betting (SPA) has introduced mandatory monitoring of financial flows tied to unlicensed betting operators. Ordinance SPA/MF No. 2,750/2026, published on 14 September, requires banks, payment systems and e-wallets to track suspicious transactions and block accounts linked to illegal operators.
Banks must flag several patterns: frequent small transfers from multiple senders, sharp spikes in transaction volume, betting references in payment descriptions, changes to Pix keys and QR codes, and mismatches between financial activity and declared business profiles. Once a breach is identified, the institution reports it to SPA the next working day. SPA issues a formal ruling listing the operator, its sites, apps, domains and linked accounts. Banks block the accounts within 24 hours and confirm compliance within 48 hours.
Carlos Renato Xavier de Resende, SPA's deputy head for supervision, said tackling the illegal market means cutting off financial infrastructure. 'We need to deny operators the ability to receive and transfer money so they stop being economically viable,' he wrote on LinkedIn.
Finance Minister Dario Durigan, who took office in March, said taxing operators is about fairness rather than revenue. Receita Federal logged R$7.3bn in tax receipts from betting in the first half of 2026; the agency forecasts the annual base will double above the R$10bn collected in 2025. Durigan backs tight regulation along tobacco-industry lines, but not an immediate ban. The final decision on the fate of Bets Law remains with Congress and the Senate; President Lula's government pledged to repeal the law before the general election in October.
