Brazil has intensified its crackdown on illegal gambling. This week, Finance Minister Dario Durigan announced at a press conference that President Lula had signed a new decree on Friday authorizing the government to freeze and confiscate the assets and proceeds of illegal gambling operators—once funds are locked, they will be directly transferred to the National Public Security Fund. Durigan put it bluntly: "With the decree that makes financial institutions bear joint liability, we have more weapons to fight the illegal market. The new decree will further restrict transactions involving underground gambling." Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva provided a more vivid setting—"The first step is to cut off the oxygen supply to criminal organizations, making them financially suffocate."
Funds must be frozen within 48 hours, and 37 fintech companies have already been locked down
The implementation pace of the new decree is quite tight. According to Durigan, banks, fintech companies, and payment institutions will freeze funds in accounts related to unlicensed gambling operators within 48 hours of receiving notification. Financial institutions that fail to comply may be held jointly liable. The Treasury's Awards and Gambling Secretariat has identified a batch of illegal websites and notified the National Telecommunications Agency to block them, and the government has subsequently traced the financial channels behind these operators—involving 37 fintech companies.
Inter-departmental coordination has also been initiated simultaneously. Durigan confirmed that he is sharing information with the Federal Police, state prosecutors, the Financial Activities Control Board, and the Federal Revenue Service to ensure "coordinated action." He particularly emphasized a statement that doesn't quite sound like a technical bureaucrat: "Those operating outside the law can no longer continue to use the financial system to sustain underground businesses. Our regulation directly targets the economic core of illegal activities—reducing the incentives for illegality, while strengthening the government's commitment to public interest-oriented, serious and effective supervision."
From joint tax liability to asset freezing: Brazil is tightening its grip
Wellington's statement placed this step within a larger strategic framework. "There is a consensus that organized crime is motivated to shift towards the illegal gambling sector. The government must take strong action on this point." In other words, the freezing order is not just about catching gambling operators—the real target is the organized crime networks that have already started using illegal gambling as a money laundering and fund transfer station. The frozen assets will ultimately flow into the National Public Security Fund, effectively throwing money recaptured from criminals back into the system to fight crime.
Readers of the PASA official website should have noticed the increasingly tight pace of Brazil's recent crackdown on the gray market—from the June mid-Order No. 1,766 establishing 24-hour payment restrictions and joint tax liability, to the President personally signing the freezing order, escalating from transaction restrictions directly to asset confiscation. This path from tax compliance to asset confiscation has landed two rounds in less than a month, making Brazil the most aggressive country in Latin America in combating illegal gambling payment channels. For those 37 locked-down fintech companies, the next 48 hours might be more agonizing than all past compliance rectifications combined.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel: https://t.me/gamblingdeep
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PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
