One in Three Adults in Rio de Janeiro Registered on Betting Platforms

Nearly 1.8 million people in Rio de Janeiro were linked to legal betting platforms in March 2026, the highest figure recorded for any city in Brazil.

BNL Data, citing Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, reported that 1,793,348 CPFs were linked to betting platforms in the city. A CPF is a unique taxpayer identification number used to verify users, meaning the figure refers to individuals rather than separate accounts.

Rio ranked first by this measure despite having a much smaller population than São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. According to the same data, São Paulo recorded 715,256 CPFs linked to betting platforms, although its population is nearly twice Rio’s.

The scale of the figure is clearer when compared with demographic data. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Rio has about 4.95 million adults who are legally eligible to place bets.

Based on that comparison, about 36% of the city’s adult population had CPFs linked to betting platforms in March.

The share is higher among people aged 18 to 64, at an estimated 40% to 43%. In the narrower 25-to-54 age group, often considered a key online demographic, the figure may be close to 50%.

A CPF being linked to a betting platform does not necessarily mean that a person bets regularly. Some users may have registered without actively gambling, while others may have allowed their accounts to be used by someone else. Even with that caveat, the data points to an exceptionally high level of online betting penetration in Brazil’s regulated betting sector.