Hacked public websites, shell companies and a municipal lottery: first agreement in Operation Conto da Sorte against illegal gambling in Brazil

Three investigated in Operation Conto da Sorte, which pursues an illegal betting network in Brazil, signed an agreement with the Public Ministry of Rio Grande do Norte on October 15. This has been reported by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance. The three admit to having participated in the events under investigation and will pay 1.4 million reais: 200,000 reais in fine plus 1.2 million in assets that they lose.

The agreement includes another condition: the companies linked to the group will have 180 days to demonstrate that they have implemented an integrity program, that is, regulatory compliance. The investigation is still open for the rest of those involved.

The regulator, at the origin of the case

According to the Treasury, the case was born from a technical analysis by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA). This agency of the Ministry of Finance has authorized and supervised fixed-odds betting in Brazil since Law 14,790/2023 regulated the market, which has been operating with federal licenses since January 2025.

The operation came on June 18, 2026. The Receita Federal, the Brazilian Tax Agency, acted together with the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco and executed 14 search warrants against seven people and six companies. There were searches in Recife, Caruaru and Toritama (Pernambuco), in Fortaleza (Ceará) and in São Paulo and Iguape (São Paulo). The Justice agreed to block assets for an amount of up to 145 million reais.

The special secretary of the Federal Revenue, Robinson Barreirinhas, estimated the money that 37 companies related to the organization had moved at 50,000 million reais. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, only one of them received 4,600 million reais in income in 2025.

Lotseridó: the municipal lottery that served as a cover

The scheme was supported by Lotseridó, the lottery created by the municipality of Bodó, a small town in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte. Through it, dozens of betting platforms were given an appearance of legality that they did not have.

For the Spanish reader, it is worth remembering that Brazilian law only recognizes lottery powers to the Union, the states and the Federal District, not to the municipalities. The Federal Supreme Court stopped municipal lotteries with a precautionary measure in the ADPF 1212 case. The fines set were 500,000 reais per day for municipalities and companies that continued to operate and 50,000 reais for mayors and officials.

Lotseridó ceased operations in October 2025, according to the Municipal Chamber of Bodó. The city council itself acknowledged that the authorized companies collected about 415 million reais in ten months and left 8.3 million reais in the municipal coffers. Even so, according to investigators, the platforms continued to operate without authorization from the SPA.

Hacked .gov.br websites and companies in the name of third parties

The Treasury note details the group's methods. He would have entered the systems of public bodies and inserted code into pages with .gov.br and .edu.br domains. In this way, he redirected users to illegal betting websites, taking advantage of the credibility of these official sites.

The shell companies were in the name of third parties: people with few resources, beneficiaries of social programs and relatives of the organizers. The ringleaders maintained control of the bank accounts through powers of attorney. The companies were listed at non-existent addresses, empty premises or virtual offices, and some continued to move money after having been deregistered from the Receita Federal. The Public Prosecutor's Office identified 21 companies registered at the same fictitious address of Bodó.

Crackdown on illegal gambling in Brazil

The case adds to the Brazilian authorities' crackdown on unlicensed gambling. In July, the Federal Police launched Operation Slots and blocked up to R$951 million from another illegal gambling ring. That same month, a clandestine online gambling ring was dismantled.

On the regulatory front, the SPA approved a port in September that expands the detection, blocking of accounts and the interruption of payments to illegal fixed-odds bets. And this month it has activated the final phase of the closure of bets that do not have authorization.