Brazil’s Lula Moves to Ban All Online Betting, a US$7 Billion Market

BRAZIL · ONLINE BETTING

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is due to sign an online betting ban this afternoon in São Paulo. His aides say it will outlaw online casino games and bets on real sporting events alike.

The tool is a provisional measure (medida provisória): a presidential decree with the force of law from the day it is published. Congress must approve it within 120 days, or it lapses.

The Maracanã stadium, with the smaller Maracanãzinho arena beside it, seen from the hills above Rio de Janeiro. Flamengo, which plays its home games here, carries a betting brand as main shirt sponsor. (Photo: Rob (BBM Explorer), CC BY 2.0)

What the measure is expected to say

The text had not been published by Friday morning, and the government had not confirmed its contents. The details below come from aides quoted by Estadão, O Globo, Folha de S.Paulo and CNN Brasil.

Until Wednesday, ministers were weighing a narrower version that would ban only online casinos and curb advertising. Lula chose the wider ban, saying he wanted to “cut the evil at the root,” Estadão reported.

The legal news site JOTA and the magazine Exame both reported that Lula held two drafts. He was to settle the final scope only on Friday, shortly before the announcement.

UOL columnist Alicia Klein reported that operators, Brazilian or foreign, would be barred from offering, brokering or advertising bets in Brazil. She wrote that they would get only a very short period to wind down.

The measure takes effect only when printed in the official gazette, the Diário Oficial da União. Klein reported publication was expected in an extra edition on Friday or, at the latest, Monday 28 September.

The same event is also expected to launch a separate programme in which the Treasury buys up old household debts.

A US$7 billion market, licensed for under two years

Brazil legalised fixed-odds betting in December 2018, under President Michel Temer. Rules came only with a 2023 law signed by Lula, and the licensed market opened on 1 January 2025.

Each company paid R$30 million (about US$5.8 million) for a five-year licence. Some 85 companies hold one, running nearly 190 brands on websites ending in .bet.br.

In 2025 those sites kept R$36.96 billion (about US$7.1 billion) after paying out prizes, the finance ministry’s betting secretariat reports. That measure, gross gaming revenue, is in effect what Brazilian bettors lost.

The secretariat counted 25.2 million individual bettors, roughly one Brazilian adult in six. Online casino games, not football, bring in 70 to 80 percent of operators’ revenue, by industry estimates cited in Estadão.

The federal tax agency collected about R$9.95 billion (about US$1.9 billion) from betting firms in 2025. That includes a 12 percent levy on revenue, worth R$4.5 billion (about US$870 million), split among sport, tourism, security and other areas.

Dollar conversions use 5.175 reais per US dollar, the open.er-api.com rate on 25 September 2026.

Finance Minister Dario Durigan says the money will not decide the matter. “If it harms the people, the revenue is not justified,” he told the weekly CartaCapital.

Why Lula wants betting gone

Lula ties betting to household debt, which polls cite as one reason for his government’s low approval. Central Bank data show debt payments took a record 28.9 percent of household income in June.

That series began in 2011, and June’s reading is its highest. A Central Bank director said in early September that betting platforms are a “central element” in that squeeze, Folha reported.

Public alarm grew in 2024, when a Central Bank study looked at Bolsa Família, Brazil’s main cash-transfer programme for poor families. It found five million people in recipient families sent betting sites R$3 billion (about US$580 million) in August.

That equalled about a fifth of the programme’s payments that month. The federal audit court later warned that the study could not show the money came from the benefit itself.

“I discovered that betting is a disease,” Lula told a rally in Maceió on Thursday night. “I am going to end these bets before they end Brazil.”

At a rally in Guarulhos on 18 September, he said the state could live without the tax. “What I cannot lose is the lives of the poor who gamble,” he added, InfoMoney reported.

An election nine days away

The signing comes nine days before the first round of the presidential election, on Sunday 4 October. Lula is seeking a fourth term; his main rival is Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing Liberal Party.

An Atlas/Bloomberg poll published on 23 September found 75 percent of Brazilians think online betting should be banned, Exame reported. Lula’s campaign now uses the slogan “Flávio é bet, Lula é o caminho” — “Flávio is a bet, Lula is the way.”

There is an irony. The licensing system Lula now wants to scrap was built by his own finance ministry, then led by Fernando Haddad.

He first floated a ban in October 2024, reported at the time as Brazil’s President Considers Online Betting Ban if Regulation Fails. Cities are moving too, as in Betting Advertising Ban Clears First Vote in São Paulo.

Industry and football push back

Nine industry associations issued a manifesto on Thursday titled “We Bet on Brazil.” They argue a ban would push players to illegal sites with no ID checks, no self-exclusion and no block on welfare recipients.

Carlos Lima, who heads the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR), said operators will sue to recover licence fees and investments. The IBJR says its members hold 70 percent of the market.

Industry groups estimate that compensation claims against the state could reach R$120 billion (about US$23 billion). The figure is preliminary and not official.

More than half of the 20 top-flight football clubs have a betting firm as main shirt sponsor. Betting sponsors paid those clubs more than R$1 billion (over US$190 million) in 2025.

Sponsors including Betano, which backs Flamengo, have told clubs their contracts end automatically once the measure is issued, radio network CBN reported. Aides say help for clubs, such as cheaper credit, will likely come after the election.

Lula has brushed the warnings aside. “This is not a war, it is a decision,” he said at a campaign event in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

What comes next

Once published, the online betting ban becomes law at once. Congress then has 60 days to vote, extendable by 60 more, and the count pauses during its year-end recess.

A final vote could therefore run into early 2027. Lawmakers can approve it, amend it — for example to keep sports betting — or let it lapse.

Court challenges are near certain. Government teams have been building a legal basis so the text survives in court, CNN Brasil reported.

What it does not mean: betting does not become illegal the moment Lula signs. Licensed sites stay lawful until publication, and nothing official yet says how balances, refunds or fines will work.

Nor does it end illegal betting, which the authorities already fight site by site. More than 25,000 unlicensed sites were blocked in 2025 alone.

More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the online betting ban already in force?

Not yet. It takes effect only when published in the official gazette, which was expected on Friday or on Monday 28 September.

What is a provisional measure?

It is a decree the Brazilian president can issue in urgent cases, with the force of law from publication. Congress must approve it within 120 days, not counting its recess, or it lapses.

Does it cover sports betting or only online casinos?

Government aides told several Brazilian outlets it covers both online casino games and fixed-odds bets on sport. The final wording had not been published by Friday morning.

What happens to money bettors hold on licensed sites?

No rule has been made public yet. The published text, and notices from each operator, should set out how players can withdraw their funds.

Sources: Estadão, O Globo, Folha de S.Paulo, CNN Brasil, UOL, Valor Econômico, Exame, JOTA, CBN, InfoMoney, Poder360 and CartaCapital, reports of 23–25 September 2026; Ministry of Finance, Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, 2025 market panorama; Federal Revenue Service, 2025 collection data; Central Bank of Brazil, Technical Note 513/2024 and household credit statistics for June 2026; Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), Ruling 2529/2025; exchange rate from open.er-api.com, 25 September 2026.

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