Brazil's Finance Minister, Dario Durigan, said on Friday (2) that the federal government identified 48 accounts on online betting sites holding balances of R$ 500,000 (about US$ 95,000) or more, a pattern his team considers suggestive of money laundering. The accounts surfaced in a balance survey conducted after the government banned online betting platforms and casinos last week, and will be investigated together with the Federal Police, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
The minister was careful to separate what is confirmed from what remains a hypothesis. Confirmed: 48 accounts hold balances far above the typical bettor's. Still under investigation: whether the money is actually linked to laundering. "I am not saying all of them are [money laundering], but there is movement that diverges from the bulk of accounts that held funds for betting, and they may well be subject to investigation," Durigan said, according to Folha.
The figures released by the ministry show the immediate effect of the ban. Balances held at legalized betting houses fell from R$ 2.1 billion before the measure to R$ 1.4 billion on Friday. According to CNN Brasil, the Central Bank reported that roughly R$ 600 million per day stopped flowing to betting platforms starting last Saturday (26). Preliminary Central Bank data also point to a 10% drop in Pix transactions, Brazil's instant payment system, between Saturday (26) and Monday (28). Durigan said there are early indications, still under study, that part of that money migrated to other sectors of the economy.
Since the provisional measure banning online betting was published on September 25, the government has ordered 10,000 illegal sites taken down, forwarding them to telecom regulator Anatel for blocking. Durigan could not estimate the traffic those sites received, but said each takedown happens within hours. On Friday he met with Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva to discuss the issue. Alongside the provisional measure, President Lula sent Congress a bill that tightens rules against the illegal betting market and defines crimes related to fixed-odds betting.
What to do if you still have money in a betting account
For anyone still holding funds on betting platforms, the simplest path is to withdraw the money by Monday (5), at 11:59 p.m. local time, the deadline for voluntary withdrawals. Missing the deadline does not mean losing the money: between October 7 and 8, betting operators must report remaining balances to banks by taxpayer ID (CPF), and from October 9 to 14 the banks return the funds to bettors. If any obstacle prevents the refund, state-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal takes over the repayment starting October 14. The practical advice is to withdraw within the deadline, which skips the intermediate steps and speeds up the refund.