STORY-TRÅD·politik

Over 3 million welfare recipients blocked from betting sites in Brazil

More than 3 million recipients of federal social welfare programs have been blocked from opening or maintaining accounts on websites authorized to operate fixed-odds betting in Brazil. According to the Brazilian president’s press office, the block was made possible by a feature of the Betting Management System (SIGAP) implemented in October 2025. Among others, beneficiaries of cash transfer programs, assistance programs for people with disabilities and the elderly, student loans, and debt renegotiation programs are barred from participating. Notícias relacionadas:Brazilian families lost USD 12 billion to online gambling in 2025.Brazil expands telemedicine care for gambling addiction.The measure complies with a decision by the Supreme Court issued in November 2024, which ruled that the federal government must adopt measures to prevent the use of funds from welfare programs for online gambling, in order to avoid “negative impacts on household budgets and mental health, especially among people in vulnerable situations.” SIGAP is a platform that enables the regulation, monitoring, and oversight of Brazil’s gambling market, capable of processing some 500 million records daily. According to the president’s office, licensed companies use the information gathered by SIGAP to identify users who are barred from registering or maintaining an existing account on betting platforms. The automatic verification is performed in real time by cross-referencing tax records with other information provided by the user. When a restriction is identified on an existing account, the platform has up to three days to close it and return the user’s entire available balance. The decision to deny registration or close an account rests with the operator itself. There is no manual intervention in this process, and the block does not result in any other penalties for the user or the companies.