Brazil to sue eight betting firms over refund data

Brazil's Attorney General's Office (AGU), the federal government's legal service, says it will take eight former betting operators to court because they did not send banks the data needed to refund their players. The federal government said on Saturday 10 October that the eight missed the 7 October deadline to give the banks each player's balance, broken down by CPF (the Brazilian taxpayer number), together with the bank account the player used to deposit. The AGU "ingressará com ação judicial" (will file a lawsuit) to force them to hand it over, according to the release from the Presidency's communications office (Secom).

Why the data matters

Under the shutdown rules of Provisional Measure (MP) 1.394/2026, money left in accounts after the voluntary withdrawal window closed at 23:59 on 5 October does not go back through the betting sites. The banks that held the operators' accounts pay it out, and they can only do that if they know who is owed what and where to send it. Secom said this data is needed for the banks to make the refunds.

The Finance Ministry's betting secretariat (SPA) set the rules in Ordinance 3.005/2026: operators had to report final balances to the SPA by 7 October, including each player's CPF, the amount to be returned and the bank details for the refund, and the date they sent that data to the banks.

How much is still owed

Operators now report R$159 million still to be returned, covering 22.5 million players across 70.5 million accounts. Most of it is small change: 90% of those accounts hold less than R$1 and 97% less than R$10.

When the withdrawal window closed on 5 October, the reported figure was about R$1.2 billion. How it fell to R$159 million depends on whose wording you read. The release says the current amount "resulta da atualização dos dados pelas empresas" (results from the companies updating the data). Brazil's public news agency, Agência Brasil, reported it as more than R$1 billion returned to players. An SPA bulletin cited by the Justice Ministry on 6 October had put the outstanding total at R$1.325 billion across about 26.5 million players.

The refund calendar

• 9 to 14 October: the banks that worked with the operators return balances automatically, using the data the operators sent them.
• From 14 October: any money the banks cannot return is transferred to Caixa Econômica Federal, the state-owned bank, which then handles the refund.

Enforcement against illegal sites

The same release gives an update on blocking. Between 25 September and 9 October, 16,627 illegal betting sites were sent for blocking. Secom said 2,979 more sites and platforms were identified on 8 and 9 October alone. Authorities also asked platforms to remove 3,691 pages, profiles, channels, groups and servers: 1,974 on Facebook, 560 on Instagram, 1,027 on Telegram, 115 on TikTok, 14 on WhatsApp and one Discord server.

What it means for players

• If you had money with a formerly licensed operator: the official route is the bank refund between 9 and 14 October, which the government's Brasil sem Bets page describes as automatic.
• If nothing arrives: the government's Brasil sem Bets page says to contact Caixa Econômica Federal from 14 October.
• If your operator is one of the eight: the AGU says its lawsuit aims to force those companies to hand over the data so the refunds can go ahead.

For the background, see how the refund process started when the sites went dark, the provisional measure behind the ban, the ANJL challenge at the STF and the AGU's STF challenge to the federal betting laws.

18+. If gambling has stopped feeling like a pastime, see responsible play. In Brazil, the government's Brasil sem Bets page points to support at gov.br/bets.