Brazil’s Betting Ban Reaches the Influencers Behind the Links

Brazil’s federal betting crackdown has moved from blocked domains to the people who send audiences to them. On 9 November, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security asked Instagram to remove 348 profiles used to promote illegal betting. The ministry says the accounts have more than 150 million followers between them.

The request is one part of a much wider monitoring operation. Since Brazil’s fixed-odds betting ban took effect on 25 September, the ministry says its teams have found more than 60,000 websites, pages, profiles, groups and servers tied to irregular betting promotion. That is not one kind of object and it is not one verification decision. It is an attempt to map the route from a website to an audience.

Two sets of numbers, two different jobs

The ministry’s 9 November update counted 51,611 websites, 6,596 Facebook pages with an audience of about 34 million, more than 900 accumulated Instagram profiles, 1,442 Telegram groups with 25.6 million participants and 127 TikTok profiles with 469,000 followers. In the single day’s update, it separately identified 2,207 Facebook pages, 18 Telegram groups and another 998 websites.

A second project points to the same distribution problem from another direction. LegitBet, a monitoring platform used by the National Association of Games and Lotteries, found 802 Instagram profiles linking to 844 suspected betting sites between 21 October and 2 November. Its database held 48,318 profiles. The survey says 73% of those flagged had between 10,000 and 100,000 followers, while 23.6% had between 100,000 and one million. Nearly 74% posted repeatedly, at least once every three days.

Those figures should not be added to the government’s Instagram count. LegitBet’s sample came from its own database and covers a defined period. The ministry’s total covers a longer operation and a broader set of platforms. Both make the same point: removing a domain does not automatically remove the social relationships that made the domain discoverable.

A link can carry more trust than an advert

A banner can be recognised as advertising. A creator can seem like a person sharing an opportunity with an audience that already follows them. That is why the ministry’s language focuses on the chain: the profile, the link, the destination and the payment mechanism. Its monitoring also found Facebook pages and Telegram groups, including groups where people can exchange instructions as well as links.

The practical risk is not that every promoted brand proves fraudulent. It is that the viewer often cannot tell from the post whether the destination is authorised, whether local gambling rules apply or who will handle a withdrawal. Familiar faces and follower counts travel much further than the paperwork behind the link.

The legal context makes that distinction sharper. Provisional Measure 1,394 prohibits the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting while Congress considers the measure. A law-firm analysis describes the central prohibition, but the enforcement notices show how quickly its practical question becomes a platform and creator question.

Enforcement has to match the channel

Blocking a website at the hosting or internet-service level is a relatively discrete action. Removing a creator account involves identity, replacement accounts, backup pages, direct messages and links placed in comments or stories. A creator can also point to a page that looks like editorial content rather than a casino advert.

That is why repeated monitoring matters more than a one-off headline count. LegitBet says a single 85-minute round checked 908 profiles and found 626 sharing links to suspected betting sites. The useful enforcement lesson is not that the platform is full of 626 permanent offenders. It is that a short sweep can surface a large number of accounts and destinations, which means review, removal and follow-up have to run repeatedly.

Readers do not need to wait for the final policy design to apply a safer check. If a sports pick, casino clip or “exclusive link” arrives through someone whose main recommendation is the operator rather than the content, verify the brand in the official regulator’s register. TopGamb’s legal-status check before a deposit is a better starting point than a discount code.

What the enforcement still leaves open

The government can count profiles, sites and groups, but the final effect depends on removal, block evasion and whether the destination can keep taking payments. A profile that stays online can keep sending traffic even if one linked domain goes dark. A blocked domain can be replaced even if the account that promoted it disappears.

For players, the useful habit is to separate entertainment content from account access. Watch a stream or a football preview if it has value, then close it before opening a casino or sportsbook. Do not let a creator’s urgency set the deposit, especially when a matched betting story or a recovery narrative makes a loss feel temporary.

TopGamb’s guide to gambling-ad breaks during live sport explains why the moment after a goal or a bad beat needs a stronger pause. If a sportsbook or casino is repeatedly reaching you through notifications and creator links, use an account-level opt-out or the stronger self-exclusion process.

The Ministry of Justice says the aim is to protect income and families as well as stop prohibited operators. That is the right frame for the story. The important test is not how many links appear in a press release. It is whether the route from the post to the payment page becomes harder to use, and whether a player encountering the post has a plain way to check before depositing.

Keep any gambling inside a fixed entertainment budget. A social post cannot make a losing activity safe, and a promotion that is difficult to verify is not worth a test deposit. Use a time-out and contact GamCare or a local support service if repeated prompts are driving play. TopGamb’s explanation of loss limits is useful before the next session.

Material used for this report

• Agência Gov: Justice Ministry seeks removal of 348 betting-promotion profiles
• iGaming Business: More than 800 influencer profiles linked to suspected betting sites
• CGM: Brazil’s Provisional Measure 1,394 and the fixed-odds betting ban
• GamCare: Get support