This ban, even if it is temporary, will damage the operator’s trust.
On 6 October 2026, Brazil’s betting ban took licensed platforms offline. The Ministry of Justice said 187 of 188 authorized sites had stopped, with a block requested for the one still operating. Withdrawals had closed at 23:59 on 5 October, and R$1.325B remains with about 26.5M bettors. Banks are due to return it on 9–14 October.
Blask followed 5 970 Brazilians who had used only a licensed site in the month before the decree. From the week of 11–17 September to 25 September — 1 October, the share opening a licensed site fell by about a third. Visits to unlicensed sites stayed close to the prior week, while people who already used both kinds of site held that mix steady.
In June — August, the last full months before the decree, onshore brands held 96.9% of Brazil CEB, $2.51B against $81.6M offshore. Blask Index split 95.4% onshore and 4.6% offshore.
Players who switched went to a few domains. Stake.com drew 271 panelists in the first week, up from 78, on an address outside the .bet.br license. One new 1win mirror went from zero visitors in the panel to 505.
Search for both offshore names, 1win and Melbet, jumped after the decree. Melbet’s rise was the steeper of the two, and by 30 September it had eased to 4.0 times the 1–24 September average.
By 6 October the ministry had sent 13 241 illegal sites for blocking.
A year earlier, India’s ban shifted how players reached offshore sites. Search’s share of those visits fell from 16% to 8%, and pop-under networks took the traffic, while that reach stayed level with Brazil. Whether the Brazilian list produces that shift is still open.
License fees will not be returned to iGaming operators. It turns out that all who had paid for the license lost their money, so Brazil lost both money and operators’ trust.
