Anatel wants more power to remove companies that violate rules in Brazil. Last Tuesday (17), at the Bets CPI, Gesilea Fonseca Teles, superintendent of Inspection, highlighted this need.
She also suggested that Anatel have reinforced legal powers to improve supervision and apply sanctions in the sector. Gesilea Teles represented Carlos Manuel Baigorri, director of Anatel, who is on vacation.
According to Gesilea, currently, the blocking of illegal betting websites follows the guidelines of the Ministry of Treasury. A cooperation agreement formalizes the communication system between agencies. The Prizes and Betting Secretariat (SPA) provides the list of websites, and internet providers block these websites.
Gesilea Teles detailed: “Since October 2024, Anatel has already blocked more than 8,560 illegal betting sites. And how does this blocking work? The Ministry of Treasury sends us a list of websites that should be blocked.
Anatel, in possession of this list, informs the providers that provide access to the internet. Who are these providers? These are mobile internet providers, which we know as cell phones, and fixed internet providers. How many providers are we talking about? There are more than 21 thousand providers.”
Location masked by VPNs
She explained that Anatel only notifies providers about the ministry’s decision, not carrying out the blocking directly.
Gesilea Teles also stated: “All this procedure that Anatel adopts, we cannot have interference over the operators’ network. What we do is merely communicating a decision that is not within our competence.”
Gesilea warned that the use of VPNs by users weakens Anatel‘s actions, as it allows them to mask their location and avoid blocking.
She said: “The VPN makes an encrypted connection between the user and the VPN server and then you don’t know where that user is.
So if this user connects to a VPN abroad, for example, communication providers here do not know that he is in Brazil. And he is physically in Brazil, but virtually he is not there. It’s a way of circumventing a lockdown order.”
Illegal websites change their name to make blocking more difficult
Another problem is the rapid change of names by illegal sites, making continuous blocking difficult. Anatel can only block new sites when the Ministry updates the list.
Gesilea Teles highlighted: “The illegal websites themselves, they can change their names. So today what is ABC Bet, tomorrow it changes to ABCD Bet.
He makes a one-letter change on his website and Anatel works with a closed list that is sent to us by the Ministry of Treasury.”
Senator Soraya Thronicke compared the situation to “blowing wind”, stating: “The VPN is not illegal, but they can change just one point, one letter, and continue with the same platform, continuing with another name.
It’s something that impresses us greatly, I usually say that we are trying to change the tire while the car is running and we are very late. Because they are already light years ahead of us.”
Anatel considers partnerships with VPN providers to combat irregular betting
Gesilea informed Senator Izalci Lucas that Anatel is considering partnerships with VPN providers to improve notifications. The superintendent defended changes to the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet to allow Anatel to monitor and sanction connectivity services.
She commented: “Exactly to expand Anatel’s competencies. We have to be able to reach the DNS, we have to be able to reach the CDNs so that we can have a stronger performance and supervisory competence over what is happening in the world of betting. As the legal delimitation is, we do not have this competence.”
Currently, Anatel only transmits judicial and administrative orders to block websites.
Gesilea Teles explained: “It is important that there can be a modernization of the Marco Civil da Internet so that both the internet connection provider and those responsible for other connectivity-enabling services and internet application providers can be held civilly and administratively responsible, if they disobey court orders and, most importantly, administrative orders.”
Soraya mentioned having received a draft and is negotiating with the Executive to make changes through a provisional measure.
She stated: “He [Carlos Manuel Baigorri] delivered this draft of a pre-project, but we also discussed, given the urgency and relevance, which are the requirements of an MP, we are waiting for an agenda with Minister Fernando Haddad to for him to decide whether to take a provisional measure (…), it would be a faster way. Because the project really takes a long time.”
Anatel and the resistance of other platforms
Izalci Lucas highlighted the resistance of large platforms such as Google and Meta and asked how Anatel intends to deal with this if the Framework is changed.
Gesilea Teles clarified: “When we think about changing the Legal Framework, and then we create a legal basis so that Anatel can act, I think that the platforms that operate in Brazil, they have to adjust, they have to accept Brazil’s legal Framework and will not be able to challenge Anatel’s competence.
Today this doubt about competence exists because it is not clear, it is not written that we can act on legal platforms. Once this is resolved, they will not be able to contest.”
Senator Damares Alves suggested that the Bets CPI present the project if the government does not send a provisional measure.
She stated: “So if we can present it, if the government does not send it as an MP, we present it, and, in the first week [of February], in the next session, we deliberate, it is a great delivery of this Bets CPI. But it’s also not just about changing the assignments, the milestone; it is also to equip Anatel.”
Soraya asked about challenges such as investment restrictions and access to new technologies. Gesilea responded that Anatel needs more staff and investment, especially if its skills increase.
Izalci Lucas suggested that legal companies help develop systems to track and block illegal websites. “They can really contribute to this. Because I think the Ministry of Finance will have a lot of difficulty keeping up with these sites that keep changing from minute to minute.”
Bets CPI requests and calls
At the meeting, senators approved eight requests, including the summons of Beatriz Salles Melges, director of BetConstruct, and the request for a police investigation into money laundering involving Corinthians and Vai de Bet.