Brazil Seeks Takedown of 348 Influencer Accounts Promoting Illegal Betting

The Instagram accounts reach more than 150 million followers. The justice ministry says it has flagged over 60,000 sites, pages and groups since betting was banned on Sept. 25.

Francis Gable

11/11/26 · 2 minNovember 11, 2026 · 2 min read

Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security said on Nov. 9 that it has asked for 348 Instagram influencer accounts to be taken down for promoting illegal betting.

Together the accounts have more than 150 million followers, the ministry said, and one of them alone has 1.4 million. The move takes enforcement past the betting sites to the people who send players to them, in a country that banned betting nationwide on Sept. 25.

Ministry Targets the Accounts Behind the Ads

Two ministry departments run the monitoring: the digital rights secretariat and a cyber operations lab inside the public security secretariat. They watch the sites, social networks and messaging apps used to promote unlicensed betting.

The same Nov. 9 sweep flagged 2,207 Facebook pages with a combined audience of 7.5 million. It also found 18 Telegram groups with about 182,000 members and 998 websites.

"It is not enough to take illegal betting sites offline if these platforms keep reaching the population through influencers and social networks."

Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva said that in the ministry's announcement, translated here from Portuguese.

Enforcement Count Triples in a Month

Since Sept. 25 the ministry has logged more than 60,000 sites, pages, profiles, groups and servers tied to illegal betting promotion. On Oct. 9 the count stood at 20,318.

Most are websites, at 51,611. The rest include 6,596 Facebook pages, more than 900 Instagram profiles, 1,442 Telegram groups with 25.6 million members and 127 TikTok profiles.

The push rests on Provisional Measure 1394, an emergency presidential order that bans offering, brokering and advertising bets in Brazil. The ministry says it also set rules for returning money players had left on betting sites. FairGambling covered the Supreme Court fight over the ban in October.

Congress has until Nov. 23 to vote on the measure, according to its official calendar. The joint committee that must review it first had not been set up as of Nov. 10, with 99 amendments already filed.

Treat gambling as entertainment you pay for. 18+, and if it stops feeling like entertainment, help exists at BeGambleAware and GamCare.