Brazil hunts illegal online gambling with banks help
The Brazilian monetary authority took a decisive step in the fight against illegal gambling by requiring the financial system to share information about unauthorized operators. BCB Resolution No. 569/2026, published on Tuesday, May 19, expands the obligations of banks, fintechs, payment processors, and virtual asset service providers, which must now detect and report operations linked to unlicensed betting platforms. The measure turns the banking circuit into a direct oversight tool for the regulated market.
The regulation is based on Article 24-A of Law No. 14,790/2023, the regulatory framework for fixed-odds betting, and establishes that shared data must include evidence of individuals or legal entities participating in the illegal market. In practice, financial entities will have to set up specific mechanisms to identify suspicious transactions, report them, and make records available to supervisory bodies. The Central Bank seeks to cut off the flow of money to unlicensed sites.
The implementation schedule is divided into two stages. Obligations related to virtual asset services must be implemented by October 30, 2026, while specific requirements to control operations linked to illegal gambling will come into force on December 1 of the same year. The resolution is already effective from the date of publication and joins other recent initiatives, such as the exclusive code for international online betting transactions and tax revenue reports from the regulated sector.
The figures behind the measure explain the urgency. According to official estimates from the Central Bank itself, Brazilians move approximately R$ 360 billion (about US$ 72 billion) annually in betting, a significant portion outside the licensed market. The Ministry of Finance, for its part, expects to collect R$ 4.17 billion (US$ 830 million) in the first quarter of 2026 alone thanks to the tax on the authorized sector. The gap between what is moved and what is taxed is one of the main drivers of the new resolution.
The strategy is part of a broader agenda that combines regulatory pressure, site blocking, tax cross-referencing, and advertising restrictions. The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) has been coordinating with the financial system, technological platforms, and the judiciary to reduce the space for illegal gambling, a complex task because the digital ecosystem allows domains, payment methods, and collection routes to be rotated with relative ease. The novelty is that banks will now have to act as an active link in the oversight.
For Latin America, Brazil's move serves as a test case. Regulated or regulating markets such as Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and the Dominican Republic are closely observing how cooperation between monetary authorities, tax authorities, and sectoral regulators is articulated in the face of illegal gambling. The integration of banks into the control perimeter makes it clear that the sustainability of the regulated model also depends on how difficult it is to operate outside the law in each country.
Tags: Brazil, Central Bank of Brazil, online gambling regulation, illegal gambling Brazil, SPA, Brazil gambling