Brazil's National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) says a monitoring platform it uses found 802 Instagram profiles sharing links to suspected betting sites after the country's fixed-odds wagering ban came into force.
LegitBet reviewed activity from October 21 to November 2 within a database of about 48,000 accounts, according to Veja. The flagged profiles directed users to 844 distinct websites. The count covers accounts in that database and does not establish how many such profiles exist across Instagram.
The association's figures show that nearly 74% of flagged profiles made more than one promotion during the period. Among them, 73% had 10,000 to 100,000 followers and 23.6% had 100,000 to one million.
A scan on October 27 examined 908 profiles in 85 minutes and found 626 sharing links to suspected betting sites.
Brazil's Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, issued on September 25, prohibits the offer, operation, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting, covering sports bets and online games.
The Finance Ministry says betting sites and apps were required to become unavailable from October 6. The measure has legal force while Congress considers it and the congressional tracker still lists its joint committee as awaiting installation.
The ANJL survey was disclosed as federal officials reported a separate enforcement action. On November 9, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security requested the removal of 348 Instagram profiles it said were promoting illegal betting. Those accounts had more than 150 million followers combined, according to the ministry.
The ministry's monitoring has identified more than 900 Instagram profiles and 51,611 websites since September 25. Its figures cover a longer interval and were collected separately from LegitBet's survey, so the two sets of profile counts should not be combined.
Officials also recorded Facebook pages, Telegram groups and TikTok accounts used in betting promotion.
A November 9 report on Telegram tipsters described groups promoting unauthorized betting sites and sharing ways to bypass Brazil’s restrictions.
The monitoring findings concern promotion through social media accounts as authorities pursue both website blocking and account removals. ANJL President Plínio Lemos Jorge raised concern that young Instagram users could encounter links to betting sites through the profiles identified in the survey.
In September, ANJL asked major technology platforms for a permanent system to remove promotions for unauthorized betting operators, including repeat accounts and replacement profiles.
Instagram permits users aged 13 and older to open accounts, a point raised by ANJL President Plínio Lemos Jorge in response to the findings
