Brazilian court orders operator to pay full $64,779 jackpot

A court in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais has ordered an online operator to pay a customer the full value of a disputed BR335,021.84 jackpot after invalidating an out-of-court settlement that had reduced the payout to just BR15,000.

The ruling was issued by in the 2nd Civil Court of Itajubá, who concluded that the agreement was abusive and placed the consumer at a significant disadvantage. The operator must now pay the full prize, deducting only the BR15,000 already received by the claimant.

The dispute dates back to July 2024, when the customer placed a BR100 bet on the Br4Bet platform. After initially winning BR3,000 and continuing to wager, she was notified that her balance had reached BR335,021.84.

According to the lawsuit, the platform initially allowed her to withdraw only BR5,000 before subsequently approving a payment of just BR37.73 after requesting identity verification documents. 

Following a complaint to Brazil’s consumer protection agency Procon, the operator argued that a system malfunction had occurred and offered a BR15,000 settlement, which the customer accepted before later challenging it in court.

The operator maintained that the jackpot resulted from a technical failure, claiming the customer had placed around 100 consecutive winning bets that would be statistically impossible under normal circumstances. It also argued that the settlement had been voluntarily accepted and that paying the full amount would result in unjust enrichment.

The court rejected those arguments, finding that the relationship between the operator and the customer falls under Brazil’s Consumer Protection Code through the country’s betting legislation. 

The judge ruled that paying just 4.48% of the advertised prize created a manifestly excessive advantage for the operator and rendered the agreement invalid.