Brazil now requires app stores and operating systems to verify the age of their users, and a R$300 million civil action against Apple over casino-style games is the first major test of that duty.
The action, filed on 30 July 2026 by child rights organisations Anced, Educafro Brasil, Visão Mundial and the Centro Santo Dias de Direitos Humanos, claims R$300 million (around $59 million at current rates) in moral damages and asks the court to force Apple to apply age verification to gambling apps within 10 days, with a R$500,000 daily fine for non-compliance. TGE reported the filing at the start of August.
The regime the claim is built on applies to every platform distributing gambling content in Brazil, licensed or not.
What the claim alleges
The plaintiffs say a minor was able to download and play Casino Roulette: Roulettist from the Brazilian App Store without any age check, despite the app carrying an 18+ rating. The app offers roulette, poker, baccarat and slots, with chip purchases from R$19.90 to R$599.90.
“It was recorded that, at no time, was proof of age, documentary verification or facial recognition required to access the content,” said Márlon Reis, legal representative for Anced.
Anced’s lawyer told Brazilian media the filing points to at least six other apps that simulate casinos and are available for minors to download, despite carrying 18+ ratings. The complaint argues that an age label without a verification step is not a control, and that responsibility sits with the store rather than only with the developer.
The law behind the claim
The action is grounded in Law No. 15,211/2025, the Estatuto Digital da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA Digital), which ended its grace period on 17 March 2026. The statute requires app stores and operating systems to use reliable age verification, and expressly rules out self-declaration as a method. Three implementing decrees followed on 18 March, and the National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) published preliminary guidelines on 20 March setting out six principles for age assurance, including accuracy, privacy protection and interoperability.
Decree No. 12,880/2026 extends the same logic to games with loot boxes, which must either verify age or offer a version to minors without those features.
The penalties are set against group revenue, not per incident. The ANPD can issue warnings, fines of up to 10% of the economic group’s revenue in Brazil in the preceding financial year, temporary suspension of activity, and a prohibition on operating in the country. Administrative sanctions are due to begin in November 2026, with formal enforcement activity from January 2027.
That timetable is what makes the Apple case worth watching. The civil courts are being asked to apply the age verification duty months before the ANPD starts sanctioning under it.
Apple’s position
Apple says it is adapting to Brazilian legislation, is testing age verification features, and plans a software rollout to all Brazilian users in the coming months. In the meantime it points users to Family Sharing parental controls.
Brazilian consumer protection and digital rights authorities had already opened an inquiry into betting app accessibility in April 2026, and in July gave Apple five days to explain what protections it applies to gambling apps on the store.
What it means for operators and suppliers
Licensed Brazilian betting operators already run identity checks under the fixed-odds framework, including facial recognition at registration. The exposure created by ECA Digital sits one level above that, at the point of distribution, and it covers social casino and casino-simulation apps that carry no betting licence and take no real-money wagers.
Those apps have been treated as games rather than gambling products in most markets. If a Brazilian court accepts that an 18+ rating without verification breaches the statute, studios publishing casino-themed titles into Brazil face a compliance question that has nothing to do with whether their product is licensed.
The distribution question also lands during a period of pressure on the regulated market. Brazilian lawmakers have tabled a R$80 monthly cap on betting deposits, and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) has upheld the 1941 ban on games of chance outside the licensed regime. Child protection is the argument driving each of them.
What happens next
The court has not yet ruled on the injunction requiring age verification within 10 days. A grant would put a compliance deadline on Apple ahead of its own stated rollout schedule and give the plaintiffs a template to use against other stores. A refusal would leave the question to the ANPD and its November sanctions window.
Either route ends in the same place for anyone distributing gambling or casino-simulation content into Brazil: the age gate has to be a check, and someone has to run it.
Source: Anced
