Brazil's Bookmakers Tell TikTok, X, Google and Meta to Act on Influencers

The ANJL wants the platforms to run a permanent programme to find, remove, de-index and block the influencers who funnel Brazilians to unlicensed betting sites, and to stop the accounts coming back under new names. It puts the illegal market at 38% to 44%.

• The Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) has notified TikTok, X, Google and Meta this week, asking each for a comprehensive plan to identify, remove, de-index and block profiles, apps and content from influencers who promote unlicensed sports betting operators in Brazil, according to BNLData's report of the notification
• The association says an illegal market estimated at 38% to 44% of Brazilian betting remains in operation, outside the rules and supervision the SPA applies to licensees
• It asks for permanent mechanisms to identify promoters of operators not authorised by the Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas, rapid removal of ads, links, promo codes and redirects, and account blocking with measures to stop deleted profiles being recreated
• ANJL president Plínio Lemos Jorge says influencers act as "genuine customer acquisition channels" for clandestine platforms, using apps, links, bonus codes and promises of winnings
• The demand follows Brazil's order to Meta to remove illegal betting ads last year, and lands in the week the finance ministry gave banks 24 hours to freeze illegal operators' accounts

The Licensed Industry Goes to the Platforms Directly

The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL), which represents licensed betting operators in Brazil, has this week notified TikTok, X, Google and Meta and requested that each adopt a comprehensive plan to identify, remove, de-index and block the profiles, applications and content of influencers who promote illegal sports betting operators in the country, according to BNLData, which reported the notification on Wednesday. The association's stated aim is permanent action by the platforms, rather than case-by-case takedowns, to stop advertising by clandestine operators that it says "act ostensibly to attract vulnerable audiences, principally minors".

In the document, as reported, the ANJL says a broad illegal market remains in operation, estimated at between 38% and 44% of the Brazilian betting market, made up of operators that do not submit to the rules and to the supervisory and protection mechanisms established in Brazilian law. Its president, Plínio Lemos Jorge, said the activity of those operators "is amplified by the use of influencers and content creators, who function as genuine customer acquisition channels, promoting clandestine platforms through the dissemination of apps, links, promotional codes, bonuses, promises of financial gain and other strategies aimed at capturing Brazilian users".

The association's requests are specific. It asks that each platform's plan include permanent and effective mechanisms for the immediate identification of influencers, profiles and other agents promoting operators not authorised by the Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance; procedures for the rapid removal of content, advertisements, links, promotional codes, URLs, redirects and any other mechanism used to route consumers to illegal operators; and the deactivation or blocking of profiles that repeatedly use the platforms for such promotion. Lemos Jorge added that the plan should include measures "to prevent or hinder the recreation, reactivation or substitution of removed profiles and content, so that merely one-off measures do not result in the simple migration of the illicit activity to new accounts, pages, addresses or formats".

A final request concerns children and adolescents: the ANJL asks the platforms to implement specific mechanisms to prevent their exposure to advertising, promotional content and other forms of publicity for illegal betting operators, given the vulnerability of that audience. BNLData's report does not say whether any of the four companies has responded, nor whether the notification carries a deadline or a threat of legal action.

A Week of Pressure on the Channels That Feed the Illegal Market

The notification arrives in a week in which Brazil's regulated market has been squeezing the illegal one from several directions. The finance ministry's SPA published rules giving banks 24 hours to freeze accounts linked to unlicensed operators, a Brasília court gave Spribe ten days to cut its Aviator game off from unlicensed sites, and President Lula called betting "a disease" while promising a decision on the sector soon. The platforms have been in the frame before: in August last year the government ordered Meta to remove illegal betting advertisements, citing the Supreme Court's ruling on platform liability, and the influencer economy around betting has been the subject of a congressional inquiry.

The Ask Is Aimed at Whack-a-Mole, Which Is the Right Target

What distinguishes this notification from the takedown demands platforms receive every week is the paragraph about recreation. The ANJL is not asking for a list of accounts to be removed; it is asking for a standing system in which removal is followed by measures that stop the same operator reappearing under a new handle the same afternoon. That is the failure mode of every content-moderation regime applied to gambling, and naming it in the demand is the association telling the platforms it knows where the previous efforts died. Whether TikTok or Meta can deliver identity-level persistence against determined affiliates is another question, but the request is at least addressed to the actual problem.

The Licensed Market Is Making the Case the Regulator Could Not Make Alone

Brazil's regulator can license, fine and order banks to freeze accounts; it cannot compel a foreign platform to redesign its enforcement, and the Meta order last year showed how slow that route is. An industry association can do something the state cannot: put the platforms on notice, in writing, that they have been told, which matters under a liability doctrine that turns on knowledge. The 38% to 44% estimate is the association's own and should be read as such, but it is also the number that justifies the licensed sector's tax bill and compliance costs, and every influencer routing a Brazilian to an unlicensed site is a customer the licensees paid to be allowed to serve. That is why the demand comes from the operators and not from the ministry.

Minors Are the Argument the Platforms Cannot Refuse

Each of the four companies has published policies on gambling advertising and on protecting under-18s, and the ANJL has framed its request so that refusing it means defending the exposure of children to unlicensed bookmakers' promo codes. That framing is deliberate and effective, and it is the same one Australia used to pass its advertising ban and the Lords used this week in Britain. The platforms' likeliest response is to point to existing policies; the association's likeliest reply is the recreation problem, and that is the exchange to watch.

The ANJL has asked four companies for a system, not a takedown. Whether it gets one will say more about the platforms than about Brazil.