Brazil's Finance Ministry is investigating 14 betting operators over allegedly understated revenue declarations and other practices that reduce federal tax collection and mandatory social allocations.
One of the cases involves Blaze. The operator deducted more than BR477m in promotional value from gross revenue of BR1.9bn, classifying it as withdrawable bonuses. Under a January 2025 Finance Ministry technical note, operators can make that deduction only if players can withdraw the amounts whenever they wish.
Blaze's own pages stated that rewards had to be wagered a minimum number of times, generally about 35 times the benefit, before they could be withdrawn. Four industry executives said those amounts shouldn't qualify as withdrawable bonuses. The same technical note treats non-financial rewards usable only inside the platform as marketing costs, which can't be deducted from revenue.
The deduction cut Blaze's declared revenue from BR1.9bn to BR1.43bn. The 12% legal allocation to social causes may therefore be understated by around BR57m, while a Federal Revenue technical note indicates the error would reduce federal taxes by BR39.9m altogether.
Foggo Entertainment, which holds the Blaze brand rights in Brazil, said it calculates gross revenue in line with current regulation and guidance from the authorities, and remains available to provide clarifications.
Another operator named is RR Participações, the controller of MultiBet and Ricobet, which didn't respond to national newspaper’s requests for comment, and no loss estimate was available.
SPA said it will take the appropriate administrative measures if non-compliance is identified, and that the regime allowing fines of up to BR2bn remains valid despite the ban.
According to the SPA, an administrative proceeding is still under way against an unidentified operator, over the restriction of withdrawals of amounts deposited in bettors' accounts
