Brazil's Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) and the federal tax authority (Receita Federal) launched Operation Jogo de Sombras ("Game of Shadows") on Friday, August 28, investigating suspected tax evasion, illegal currency transfers and money laundering tied to the NSX group, owner of the betting platform Betnacional. Six search and seizure warrants were served in João Pessoa, Recife and São Paulo. The agencies did not officially name the company under investigation; the identification of the NSX group comes from reporting by Folha de S.Paulo.

According to the prosecution, the platform handled more than R$ 5 billion in 2025 alone. The tax authority says the suspects set up a shell company in Curaçao, in the Caribbean, to make it look as if the operation ran outside Brazil before the country regulated fixed-odds betting, a market legalized only recently after years in a gray zone. Investigators believe Brazilian companies linked to the group were the ones actually running the business at home.

The money trail, according to investigators, also involved sending funds abroad and bringing part of it back as payments for services, a model that could justify the inflow of money previously sent out of the country. The Receita also points to the use of pooled accounts at fintechs, which concentrate funds from different clients in a single account, and to the booking of allegedly fictitious expenses to cut the tax bill.

"Although the group under investigation obtained authorization to operate in the segment starting in 2025, there are indications that the activity was already being carried out on national territory beforehand, without authorization and without payment of the taxes due," the Receita Federal said in a statement.

Alongside the warrants, the tax authority opened 11 tax proceedings to deepen the investigation. Potential tax recovery is estimated at about R$ 300 million, according to the agency. The probe is led by Gaeco, the MPF's organized crime task force, and officials scheduled a press conference for 10:45 a.m. Friday at the Finance Ministry in Brasília.

Second operation against betting firms in August

This is the second major joint action by the Receita and the MPF against the betting market this month. On August 13, Operation Arena served 17 search and seizure warrants in five states, with a court order allowing the seizure of assets worth up to R$ 1 billion, according to G1.

For licensed operators that paid for authorization and now pay taxes, the string of operations signals that the tax office treats the pre-regulation period as taxable, not as a no man's land. For bettors and taxpayers at large, what is at stake is the recovery of taxes on a market that moved billions before any rules applied. Folha said it could not reach the defense of those under investigation before publishing its report.