Meta has continued displaying advertisements for illegal betting platforms in Brazil weeks after receiving a government notification demanding their removal.
According to a recent investigation by the BBC, more than 700 advertisements were identified on November 10 and 11, including promotions for online casinos, bonus offers and claims promising to multiply users’ money.
Some came from pages already reported to Meta by Brazilian authorities.
The advertisements remained visible despite Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, signed on 25 September, which prohibited online betting in the country.
Platforms had until October 5 to remove advertising material.
Documents obtained through the Access to Information Law show the Ministry of Justice and Public Security identified more than 500 advertising records on Meta platforms.
In October, it asked the company to remove them and explain how it would prevent a recurrence, to which Meta said all the links identified were inaccessible in Brazil.
However, when the investigation repeated its checks on November 12, some adverts had disappeared but others had appeared in their place, promoted by the same pages.
Coordinators from the Laboratory for Internet and Social Network Studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro said the cases reveal failures in identifying who is advertising.
According to the coordinators, irregular advertising is not unique to betting and Meta holds data, such as page name and administrator changes, that could aid oversight.
“Without this level of transparency, it is possible to identify suspicious patterns and operational similarities, but not reliably demonstrate the existence of a coordinated structure,” the laboratory stated.
The Finance Ministry separately reported 33.6 million individuals with active betting registrations
