The government is speeding up the takedown of websites, but the number of blocks measures the effort, not the result.
The federal government accelerated the blocking of illegal betting websites after Provisional Measure No. 1.394/2026, which banned betting in the country. According to a note in Lauro Jardim's column in O Globo, approximately 47,000 websites were taken down in the 40 days between September 25, the date of the Provisional Measure, and last Wednesday (November 4). The average is 1.175 per day.
The rate is ten times greater than in the previous period. From October 2024 until the ban, the Ministry of Finance counted 79 websites taken down, an average of 110 per day. Adding the two periods together, there were approximately 126 blocks in just over two years.
What the number shows and what it hides.
At first glance, the data suggests a more committed government. But the number of websites taken down measures the effort of enforcement. It doesn't show how much the illegal market has shrunk. There's another possible interpretation: if it's necessary to take down ten times more websites per day, it's because there are many more illegal websites online.
This interpretation is reinforced by LegitBet reports passed on by ANJL to BNLData, which point to the growth of illegal platforms after the Provisional Measure. Before the ban, even with 22 months of regulation, the illegal market still accounted for more than 40% of bets. Since September 25th, bettors no longer have a legal alternative, and the existing demand remains.
Furthermore, taking down a website doesn't end an operation. Clandestine platforms often return within hours with a different domain and the same payment system. Therefore, the number of blocked sites grows without anyone knowing how many are new sites and how many are the same operations operating under a different address.
Unanswered questions
The published figures reiterate a gap that BNLData had already pointed out in its FactCheck regarding the official October figures. The government reports the lockdowns, but does not provide a true measure of the effectiveness of the fight against them:
⇒ How many bank accounts and Pix keys linked to illegal operators were blocked?
⇒ how much money was recovered or seized;
⇒ How many websites that were taken down came back online with a different domain?
⇒ How many operators were identified, prosecuted, or arrested?
On October 11, BNLData requested this data through the Access to Information Law from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, and the Central Bank. The Central Bank responded without providing the data. The response from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security is under review, and the response from the Ministry of Finance remains pending.
Trying to dry ice
The creation, by Ministry of Justice and Public Security Decree No. 1.325/2026, of a division of the Federal Police to repress illegal betting and match-fixing shows that the government itself knows that the problem cannot be solved by blocking domain names. As long as the focus is on the electronic address, and not on the financial flow and the operators, the clandestine market will continue to thrive.
As BNLData has been repeating since the first day of the Provisional Measure, gambling is either legal or illegal; not gambling is impossible. The 47 websites taken down in 40 days are the most recent proof of this.
