Ecuador's financial intelligence unit will begin using a Palantir platform in January 2027 to monitor sports betting and identify suspected money laundering, secretary of public administration José Julio Neira said on October 5 in an interview on Teleamazonas.
The unit, UAFE (Unidad de Análisis Financiero y Económico), will work through large data volumes and look for anomalies with Palantir's AI tools. Neira framed the plan as oversight, not a betting ban: what comes under scrutiny is the platforms, the operators and where the money originates. He named the main risks as the digital nature of transactions, the use of several payment methods and the possibility of moving funds through third parties.
The decision lands alongside a tax and licensing overhaul. Ecuador introduced a 15% betting tax in July 2024, and a decree from President Daniel Noboa obliges every operator, resident or not, to hold a Ministry of Sport licence. A five-year licence costs about $307,000 a year, or 655 base salaries at the 2025 minimum. State bodies, UAFE among them, were given three months to adapt their systems for monitoring and sanctions.
Palantir is not new to the Ecuadorian government. In 2025 the company won a contract worth more than $6m for a customs risk analysis platform.
