Last updated: January 16, 2025
Brazil has blocked more than 5,200 websites deemed illegal by the Ministry of Finance, with telecoms agency Anatel spearheading the crackdown. This move follows the country’s decision to regulate sports and online casino gambling as of January 1, 2025.
Brazil has been keen on curtailing the penetration that illegal gambling websites have registered in its domestic market, especially since the country opened up its sports and online casino gaming industries on 1 January 2025.
Interestingly, perhaps as a last effort to cover more ground, the Ministry of Finance has issued a request to the country’s telecommunications agency, Anatel, to block access to 1,812 domains that the ministry said are operating within the nation without proper licenses.
This step has taken the total count of blocked sites to 5,200 and is the third attempt to fight the black market. Earlier, Anatel had banned 2,040 gambling brands under the first phase of the blockades in October and then had another blockade of 1,400 domains in the last days of the same month.
Brazil has issued a series of warnings that if any gambling brand continues to offer its services after January 1, 2025, within its borders without owning the necessary license, it will be viewed unfavorably.
The government has even issued a warning that the gambling industry is not yet a finalized arrangement and that Brazil may ultimately retract its existing laws and suspend gambling if the adverse effects of legalization surpass the anticipated benefits.
Anatel has issued the blocking order to Brazil’s 20,000 telecom operators, who will be licensed to block individually each of the blacklisted websites and comply with the order, in order to ensure that these sites are blocked effectively.
Brazil is banning unauthorized gambling websites at an unprecedented speed.
More than 100 operators and brands are regulated at Brazil’s gambling sites, while 223 have been whitelisted. There is a running list of whitelisted brands, which the ministry makes publicly available on its website.
Brazil is not the only country that blocks websites it considers to operate illegally and target its citizens. In fact, two other large markets where ISP blocking has become a preferred remedy for wrongdoing are Australia and the Netherlands.
Yet both countries have moved forward with great caution, conducting studies to determine whether a website is actually violating extant gambling laws before acting, and have generally been successful in enforcing only a few dozen bans per month.
Brazil has arguably screened thousands of unlicensed domains at a much faster pace.
