Brazil makes its anti-iGaming police task force permanent

President Lula approved a Federal Police restructuring plan that turns a temporary anti-gambling task force into a permanent set of divisions, according to O Tempo. The request, formalized by Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, landed with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security on September 25, the same day Lula signed the provisional measure banning fixed-odds betting nationwide. The new structure includes a dedicated division for repressing illegal betting and a separate one for sports-result manipulation, plus a doctrine and training unit and an administrative support arm. It’s now formally under review at the Ministry of Management and Innovation before it gets locked into the agency’s permanent structure.

What’s actually changing is less about new powers and more about making an existing effort permanent. The Federal Police set up Base Apostas back in May 2026, a temporary investigative group focused on match-fixing, betting fraud, and illegal gambling, built with a one-year mandate under the agency’s anti-corruption and money-laundering coordination. The new plan folds that group into standing divisions instead of letting it expire on schedule, and adds two pieces it didn’t have before: a financial intelligence and anti-money-laundering coordination with a dedicated unit for crimes involving crypto and other virtual assets, and a separate coordination focused on tracking down and recovering criminal assets. Between March 2023 and August 2026, Federal Police operations tied to this space have run 12 operations, executed 73 search and seizure warrants, made 15 arrests, and frozen roughly R$4.17 billion in assets, numbers the agency is using to argue the temporary setup already proved itself. The agency is also part of Interpol’s match-fixing working group, trading investigative methods with police forces in other countries rather than working the problem in isolation.

All of this is unfolding while Congress still has the underlying ban itself up for revision. The provisional measure that triggered this police reorganization is currently open for amendments through October 13, a deadline Congress already pushed back once, and more than 40 proposed changes have been filed so far. Some would narrow the ban to online casino games specifically while leaving sports betting alone; others would keep licensed operators running and redirect enforcement entirely toward unlicensed platforms. One amendment from deputy Jorge Kajuru would have the government refund operators a prorated share of their R$30 million license fee for whatever time was left on a five-year term when the ban took effect, an alternative from deputy Beto Preto would instead let companies keep operating through their original license window without a refund, just without any renewal afterward. Whichever version of the ban survives Congress, the police structure built to enforce it looks like it’s staying either way.