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Brazil will seize operator funds through a 24-hour bank freeze, then route them to a public security fund

Patric Mirgeschiss

Editor, Affmarketingworld

Brazil will seize operator funds through a 24-hour bank freeze, then route them to a public security fund

Brazil’s government can now freeze the bank accounts of operators still running after the country’s betting ban, with an AI-assisted interagency group tracking down the sites and a new Federal Police division formalized specifically to handle illegal betting and sports manipulation.

A 24-hour freeze, then a court decides where the money goes

Decree No. 13,033/2026, signed by Lula on June 19, lets the government freeze accounts tied to operators still running after Brazil’s betting ban took effect. Once the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting flags an operator, banks and payment firms have 24 hours to freeze the linked accounts and block further transactions, then 48 hours to confirm they’ve done it. That freeze isn’t automatic forfeiture, though. The National Public Security Secretariat has to open an administrative process first, the operator gets 15 days to respond, and only after the Attorney General’s office secures a court ruling does the money actually get transferred into the National Public Security Fund.

AI finds the sites, five agencies trace the money

Finding which accounts to freeze is the job of an interagency group spanning the Finance Ministry, Justice Ministry, Federal Revenue, Federal Police, and telecom regulator Anatel, according to Finance Minister Dario Durigan. The group runs AI tools that scan for betting sites and cross-reference data to trace how money moves between them and their payment processors, work that’s already fed over 60,000 blocked pages since 2024 and more than 10,000 sites referred to Anatel for takedown just since early October.

A permanent police division, not a temporary task force

The Federal Police also formalized a dedicated division on October 13, DRAME, the Division for the Repression of Illegal Betting and Sports Manipulation, created through Portaria MJSP 1,325 and folded under the agency’s anti-money-laundering and asset-recovery coordination. It’s a step beyond Base Apostas, the temporary investigative group the PF stood up in May, and it’s the first time the agency’s org chart has carved out a unit specifically for this sector. Between March 2023 and August 2026, Federal Police operations tied to illegal betting ran 12 operations, executed 73 search warrants and 15 arrest warrants, and asked courts to seize R$4.17 billion in assets, the track record the agency is pointing to as justification for making the structure permanent.