Regis Dudena, Secretary of Prizes and Gambling at Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, said on Tuesday, December 10, that 71 of the 114 companies that requested authorization to operate in the online gambling market within the first time limit have been cleared to pay the required fee of BRL 30 million ($4,977,240).

Agência Brasil reports that the statement was made during Dudena’s testimony before the Senate Gambling IPC. As is known, as of January 1, 2025, only betting companies that are duly legalized will be able to operate, and the secretary said that the companies that have been cleared have complied with almost all the requirements demanded by the Ministry of Finance to operate correctly.

“Thus, 71 companies have already been notified by the Ministry of Finance, and have 30 days from the notification to comply with these latest requirements. Of these, 16 have already paid the fee. Today we have 16 companies that have already paid a total of R$480 million in subsidies to the Ministry of Finance,” he said.

Regis Dudena

The companies began receiving notices on the 19th of last month, and have until December 19 to pay.

Crackdown on illegal operators

Dudena also referred to one of the biggest threats to the success of the regulation, illegal websites. 

“(…) We have already had three waves of domains identified by our department, in many cases with the help of the Federal Police and other criminal prosecution agencies. We have taken down a total of 5,283 domains. There were three batches: one of 2,027, another of 1,443, and a third of 1,813. So, 5,283 sites have already been taken down, and we already have another wave to be sent to Anatel to be taken down,” Dudena noted.

He also explained to the senators that his department continues to monitor the activities of companies that have applied for authorization and that some of them are taking advantage of the regulation period to continue carrying out illegal acts. There are, for example, cases of companies using more domains than allowed (three), and they have already been notified.

“In addition, we have also identified financial service providers, and here also together with the Central Bank, with the working group of the Federal Police, to recognize who these companies are and how they have been operating,” he said about financial transactions.