Brazil has blocked 506 websites that are illegally involved in betting activities and opened further inquiries into gambling ads on Google and Meta.
After the introduction of the ban on fixed-odds betting, Brazilian authorities discovered 506 websites that could be engaged in illegal betting and online games. The operation involved both the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Ministry of Finance along with the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting.
Google and Meta Ads under investigation
On September 25-27, Brazil’s Ciberlab of Cyber Operations found approximately 1,960 Google ads leading to 7 domains which encouraged people to register, deposit funds and play online games for money.
Investigators also registered 7 ads on Meta platforms with casino games, registration bonuses and cash rewards were advertised. Some ads used different names or links, which made it difficult to identify the operators.
Some advertisements used page names or links that differed from the brands being promoted, complicating efforts to identify the operators involved.
Platforms face further regulatory scrutiny
Google’s advertising transparency tools were insufficient in terms of when a campaign started, restricting investigators’ ability to check if all advertisements contravened the new regulations. Advertisements presently containing gambling promotions will need to be removed by October 5.
Brazilian authorities are going to hold technical discussions with Google, Meta and TikTok about blocking the future gambling promotions, deleting existing advertisements and detecting disguised pages and links.
The authorities will keep monitoring the digital platforms and further analyze their operations after removing the advertisements by October 5.
