Brazil legislator plots last 180 days of legal sports betting

Political hostility to the betting industry in Brazil continues to grow, with opposition to the barely two years old betting market coming from both sides of the political spectrum, as reported by SBC Noticias Brasil team Leonardo Biazzi and Elisa Marcante. Although he signed the Bets Law back in late 2024, creating the legal market as of 1 January 2025, historically left-leaning President Lula da Silva and his Workers Party (PT) are self-described “no friends” of the industry. Criticism is now coming from the right-wing. Federal Deputy Caroline de Toni of the Liberal Party (PL) – a right-wing populist party led by the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio Bolsonaro – has proposed Bill No. 5,153/2026. If approved, the bill seeks to bring an end to online betting in Brazil. Federal licences, issued by the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), would be terminated within 180 days under de Toni’s proposal. The bill will also block access to betting sites and suspend financial flows from the sector. The bill’s main target is fixed-odds sports betting, an industry which has exploded in value since the market launched in 2025, attracting companies from overseas including Entain, Flutter Entertainment, Superbet and Betano, among others. Betting and Brazilian politics On 4 October 2026, Brazil will host elections for the positions of President and Vice-President, for regional governors and vice governors, for members of the National Congress and federal legislative assemblies. The build up to campaigning has seen betting become a political issue. Lula’s government is becoming increasingly frustrated with the industry, viewing it as having a negative societal impact on Brazilians. “If no one shows me a social reason for these betting operations to continue, we have to put an end to them,” he said in an interview with the popular Não Inviabilize podcast earlier this month. The PL has now found itself having some common ground with its PT government opposition. The PL is the largest party in the Brazilian opposition, with 91 out of 151 opposition seats. Flávio Bolsonaro has not yet fully decided on whether to include a betting ban in his agenda for the October election. His VP hopeful, Alfredo Gaspar, has revealed that the PL is muling up whether to pledge more restrictions on betting or to ban it outright. “Flávio Bolsonaro does not yet have a definitive position on a total ban, but he does believe the regulation should be revisited to ensure it truly protects Brazilian families,” he said. Betting and debt The protections both the PT and the PL, despite their fundamental ideological differences, want to ensure for the Brazilian public largely centres on protection from debt. This has formed the basis of a number of policies Lula’s government has enacted around betting. Just four months after the legal betting market was established in January 2025, the government decided to ban all Brazilians receiving Bolsa Familia welfare payments from participating in it. This excluded nearly 60 million people. In 2026, debt remains the big talking point. In his podcast interview, President Lula remarked that “the tragedy of gambling is that you spend your whole life gambling to pay off the losses from the first game you played”. Explaining her bill, the PL’s de Toni said that “the betting market has reached a sufficiently high economic scale to interfere with the consumption, savings, and debt decisions of Brazilian families”. She also cited Brazilian States’ Fiscal Bulletin estimates that net outflow of BR$65.5bn (£9.34bn) goes from Brazilian families’ resources to the betting sector. This equates to around 0.68% of the estimated gross national disposal income of Brazilian households. The idea that betting is the main cause of debt in Brazil has not been taken on board by everyone, however. This week, the Central Bank President, Gabriel Galípolo, attributed increases in debt largely to increases in credit card usage while speaking at a trade show. “It’s not right to be happy with the news that credit has grown and then complain that debt has increased,” Galípolo said, while giving no mention to fixed-odds sports betting. Unfortunately for Brazilian betting business people, the Central Bank’s statement will likely do little to ease the political pressure the sector is facing. While he has not confirmed a ban on betting, Lula is dead set on more restrictions, with the government considering banning betting companies from promoting their brands at federally-funded cultural events. The Liberal Party opposition’s shift towards scepticism of regulated betting is further narrowing the pathways open to the industry in 2026, from a political perspective.