A São Paulo court has rejected lawyer Willer Tomaz’s attempt to recover R$163 million from betting platform Blaze, finding that his losses arose from gambling risks he had voluntarily assumed.
Judge Guilherme Madeira Dezem of the 44th Civil Court said Tomaz was not a passive gambler. According to reporting by g1 and BNLData, the judge cited Tomaz’s personal requests for private “Blaze VIP Blackjack” tables and successive increases in betting limits, which reached as much as R$500,000 per wager.
Dezem held that the distress associated with losing substantial sums in electronic gambling was a direct consequence of participating in a highly volatile and random activity. The judge nevertheless granted Tomaz the right not to be contacted or bothered by Blaze.
Tomaz’s lawsuit alleged gambling addiction and failures by the platform. His lawyers said he had told Blaze more than once that a mental-health professional had diagnosed him with gambling addiction, and that he had sought three permanent freezes of his account. They also said Blaze had confirmed receipt of a pre-litigation notice.
The defence put Tomaz’s net loss at R$188.5 million between January 2025 and July 2026, a figure higher than the R$163 million sought in the lawsuit. It said he made 2,145 deposits worth R$325 million and generated R$6.6 billion in cumulative betting turnover over the period. The lawyers said the total could be higher because they had identified 55 pages of pre-2025 deposit records but could not obtain earlier game data.
Online casino tables were described by Tomaz’s defence as the principal source of the losses, with rounds lasting 30 seconds and wagers reaching R$500,000. The initial table limit was progressively raised at Tomaz’s request. His lawyers also alleged that Blaze offered R$42.2 million in bonuses linked to his activity.
The case included competing accounts of the platform’s payment arrangements. Tomaz’s lawyers alleged that Blaze accepted deposits of up to R$500,000 while limiting withdrawals to R$100 per transaction. They described one night in which he tried to withdraw R$1.9 million through 16 R$100 requests, with the final attempt blocked, before subsequent losses left R$0.29 in the account.
Blaze disputed the characterisation of the account movement as damage. It argued that the balance reflected money entering and leaving an account used for repeated deposits and withdrawals, often on the same day, rather than a total loss calculated from deposits alone.
Blaze had created a WhatsApp group for exclusive support to lawyers in April 2023, before sports betting was regulated in Brazil.
