Brazil Central Bank Blocks Betting Payment Transactions

By Jovana Vukovic

Brazil’s Central Bank has moved to cut off financial transactions connected to fixed-odds betting following the federal government’s prohibition of the sector. The new rules affect payment institutions and financial entities handling transfers to betting operators across the country.

The measures implement provisions linked to Provisional Measure 1,394, published on September 25. The Central Bank’s rules require institutions to prevent transactions destined for fixed-odds betting lotteries, while preserving a mechanism for returning money to former bettors.

Payment Restrictions Cover Bank Slips And Pix

One of the new measures prevents the processing and settlement of bank slips directed to betting companies. Participating institutions must therefore stop invoices intended for operators covered by the prohibition from being processed.

The restrictions also extend to Pix. Transfers to betting websites blocked within Brazil are prohibited under the updated payment framework. However, the rules retain an exception for transactions needed exclusively to reimburse customers.

The government’s provisional measure also requires betting websites and applications to become unavailable 10 days after its publication. Open bets must be canceled, with bettors receiving their stakes back without deductions.

The current restrictions replace the regulated framework that had operated nationally since January 2025. Under that system, bettors were required to fund their accounts through registered accounts held in their own names, while operators had to return payments received from unregistered accounts. Credit-funded betting was also prohibited.

Financial Monitoring Becomes Part Of Enforcement

The Central Bank’s intervention gives financial flows a greater role in efforts to identify unauthorized betting activity. Bruno Medeiros Durão, a banking law specialist and founder of DAP Advocacia, said the change could help authorities follow the movement of money connected to betting operations.

“When public authorities begin tracking financial flows, oversight shifts from merely looking at the betting site’s web address to investigating how money enters, circulates through, and leaves the operation,” he stated.

Durão said this approach can help authorities identify accounts, intermediaries and structures that operators may use to bypass restrictions.

A separate electronic system required by the provisional measure is intended to help financial institutions reject and return transfers associated with illegal fixed-odds betting through real-time payment systems. That system has not yet been established through the Central Bank resolution.

Thousands of domains face blocking

The financial restrictions form part of a broader enforcement effort. By September 29, the Ministries of Justice and Finance had requested the removal of 5,209 domains associated with the betting sector. Anatel had ordered 2,387 of those domains to be blocked.

The scale of financial activity in the sector had previously been substantial. A Central Bank study published in September 2024 estimated that betting and gambling companies received between R$18 billion and R$21 billion each month through Pix during 2024. The study estimated R$20.8 billion in Pix transfers to the sector during August 2024 alone, involving approximately 24 million people.

The new payment restrictions therefore target the financial infrastructure supporting prohibited betting operations while maintaining a route for customer reimbursements. The separate Pix system intended to reject and return transfers linked to illegal betting remains pending.

Source:

“New Central Bank resolutions block transactions destined for betting sites within the country”, igamingbrazil.com, October 1, 2026