A monitoring tool detected 543 unlicensed betting sites in Brazil in the three days following a temporary ban signed by President Lula on 25 September. The first 41 sites appeared within an hour of the announcement.
Bet Legal, developed by anti-fraud provider Iron Security, recorded the surge. Of 322 domains where registration dates could be verified, 320 were purchased before the ban—on average ten months earlier. Only two domains were registered after the decree, both on Saturday. Some domains date to the late 1990s and may have been repurposed.
A separate count by BNLData for an industry association found new sites launching at 54 per day in early September, then spiking after a government leak on 24 September. Iron Security CEO Diego Terrani attributes the difference to method: Bet Legal checks each address manually, BNLData casts wider.
Industry groups cite the figures to challenge the ban. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) estimate 31 million people use licensed platforms with age verification, CPF checks and self-exclusion tools. A joint task force from the justice and finance ministries has closed 506 suspicious sites since the decree. From 6 October, telecom operators must block betting platforms on regulator Anatel's request, but no blocking mechanism was in place on 25 September.
