Rio de Janeiro's Consumer Watchdog Has Fined 60 Betting Platforms Since July

Procon-RJ is sanctioning operators under consumer law, not gambling law, with fines of up to R$14 million each. Its message, as Brasília prepares to restrict the market, is that a federal licence does not exempt a bet from the Consumer Defence Code.

• Procon-RJ, the consumer protection authority of Rio de Janeiro state, has fined 60 online betting platforms since July for breaches of consumer rights, according to reports published on 23 and 24 September
• The fines come from an inspection covering 150 companies so far, after 195 were notified last year, and can exceed R$14 million (approximately $2.8 million) per company depending on the gravity of the breach
• The breaches cited include misleading advertising that presents betting as investment or income, missing information on rules and risks, weak age verification and advertising that reaches children
• The inspection rests on a 2025 joint technical note by Rio's consumer defence secretariat and the federal National Consumer Secretariat, Senacon
• It lands as the federal government prepares a provisional measure that could restrict the licensed market, and a week after Rio's big clubs signed a manifesto defending it

Consumer Law Reaches the Licensed Bets

Procon-RJ has fined 60 online betting platforms since July for practices that breach consumer rights, according to reports in Diário do Rio and other Rio outlets on 23 and 24 September, which carry the same account of the authority's figures. The fines are part of an inspection that now covers 150 companies, and moved to sanctions once the administrative proceedings against them were concluded. Last year, 195 companies were notified. The remaining companies among the 150 are still under review.

Each fine is set individually. Procon-RJ weighs the number and seriousness of the breaches, the harm to consumers, the company's economic capacity and whether it has offended before, and the penalty can exceed R$14 million, approximately $2.8 million, per company. The amounts imposed so far and the names of the companies fined have not been published.

The irregularities fall into five groups, according to the reports and BNLData: advertising that presents betting as an investment, a source of income or a route to getting rich quickly; a lack of clear information on game rules, the probability of winning and how withdrawals work; no warnings on limits and the risk of over-indebtedness; failures in age verification and advertising directed at children and adolescents; and continued operation outside the sector's legal requirements.

The legal basis is Joint Technical Note No 01/2025, signed last year by the Rio state consumer defence secretariat (Sedcon-RJ) and the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which set out an inspection checklist for betting platforms. Sedcon-RJ and Procon-RJ stress that a federal authorisation to operate does not release a company from the Consumer Defence Code, and that licensed platforms can be fined. "Now, after the proper investigation of the cases, Procon-RJ is moving on to apply the appropriate sanctions," said Rogério Pimenta, Rio's Secretary of State for Consumer Defence, according to BNLData. "Whoever committed irregularities will answer in exact proportion to the gravity of their acts."

BNLData, citing the newspaper O Dia, reports the figure differently, saying 175 companies were targeted when the sanctions phase began on 23 September. The count of 60 fined appears in most reports of the authority's statement.

The Timing Is Political

The fines land in a week dominated by the federal government's plans for the sector. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to sign a provisional measure on the bets on Friday 25 September, and on 17 September clubs including Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and Vasco, with the Rio de Janeiro state football federation, signed a manifesto defending the regulated betting market, which BNLData reports drew a hostile reaction from many of their supporters.

A Second Enforcement Channel That the Federal Regulator Does Not Control

Brazil's betting licences are issued in Brasília by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, but consumer protection in Brazil is enforced concurrently by federal, state and municipal bodies, and each Procon can open proceedings and impose fines on its own. That makes Rio's action more significant than its size suggests. An operator can comply with the Secretariat's ordinances on advertising and still face a state authority applying the broader tests of the Consumer Defence Code, such as whether an advertisement is abusive or whether risk information is clear enough. The joint note with Senacon gives Procon-RJ a federal anchor for that reading, and other states can use the same checklist. For licensees, the practical exposure is not one fine but the possibility of 27 parallel ones.

The Missing Numbers Weaken the Signal

The action would be more persuasive with its details. Procon-RJ has not said how many of the 60 are licensed operators rather than illegal sites, which companies were fined, or how much. Without that, it is impossible to tell whether consumer law is being used to discipline the regulated market or to pursue the unlicensed one that the federal government says it wants to close, and the different counts in circulation add to the uncertainty. Given the national debate over a ban, the distinction matters: fines on licensees support the argument that the legal market is being policed; fines on illegal operators support the argument that it cannot be.

Rio has shown that state consumer law can reach the betting market regardless of who holds a federal licence. Until it publishes who was fined and for how much, the scale of that reach is a claim rather than a record.