Brazilian police expose dark underbelly of illegal online gambling
A member of the civil police in Brazil, has painted a dark and disturbing picture of illegal online gambling in the country. Appearing before the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission into Sports Betting Lucimério Barros Campos who led Operation Game Over, which dismantled criminal schemes related to betting and digital influencers, stated that illegal betting houses hire influencers and allow them to use fake accounts on gambling apps to simulate winnings and promote these to their followers.
According to the Brazilian Senate News Agency, Barros Campos explained that Operation Game Over was conducted by the Fraud Investigation Department following reports from individuals who had lost significant amounts of money on illegal online gambling platforms. He stated that these illegal betting operations use digital payment intermediaries that receive bets via payment method Pix from gamblers and transfer them to the betting houses. Because these intermediaries are not financial institutions, blocking assets is not possible.
“The path is always the same: gambler, payment intermediary, and betting house . . . we gathered a substantial amount of losses from that investigation in Alagoas and identified R$ 15 million funnelled into betting, all clandestine.”
According to Lucimério, influencers earn money from the betting houses to attract more gamblers, rather than betting themselves on the platform. He presented audio and video evidence from the investigation to illustrate the criminal schemes used.
“To gamble, the bettor needs to download an app. In that app, influencers are provided with the so-called demo account. They received real accounts where they placed the link for people to click and bet, but they also received another link where they could log in, simulate, and record the screen demonstrating how they made big gains. It’s all a scam.”
Lucimério also advocated for the regulation of advertising for legalized betting operations. He also stated that the police investigation initially began as fraud investigation but, due to the extent of the findings, continued in a specialized criminal court for organized crime.
“As we progressed in the investigation, we realized that there was a hidden foreign individual manipulating a group of recruiters in Brazil, who often reached out directly through social media to influencers. We observed layers of tasks, where each had its responsibility, and classified these actions as organized crime due to the operationalization of these bets. We also saw signs of money laundering,” he said.
