Brazil’s Betting Ban: What’s actually happening and what comes next?

On September 25, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a provisional measure which bans fixed-odds betting including sports betting and online casino. The Provisional Measure (MP) 1.394 was published on September 25. The MP terminates federal and state fixed-odds betting authorizations within 30 days, with no refund of the grant fee. Article 1 of the MP bans “the exploitation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting lotteries, in physical or virtual form, including when carried out by an operator based abroad that offers them to a person located in the national territory” across the entire territory of Brazil. This is a temporary measure, and it has yet to become a permanent law. Congress has 120 days to approve this measure and since recess time doesn’t count in this time frame, it means that the process could last until early 2027. It also arrives days before the presidential election on October 4 and only about 2 years since Brazil opened its regulated sports betting market. Is Brazil really banning betting? Yes, but the ban is not yet permanent law. The posted MP 1.394 is a provisional measure. It has legal force from the moment it was published. If not approved by the Congress, it will lose its force. Operators are preparing to fight the ban in court, while Congress is reportedly postponing any serious discussion until after elections. The ban is covering not only licensed operators, but also all forms of sports betting and online casinos. By the time the ban was announced, the authorities were already ramping enforcement activities. On September 14, the SPA issued the Ordinance SPA/MF 2,750, requiring banks and payment processors to close the accounts of illegal operators within 24 hours of receipt of the notice and inform the authorities within two days. Financial institutions were given 30 days to modify their systems. In addition, the authorities blocked 506 websites and launched investigations into gambling ads on Google and Meta. Investigation registered around 1,960 ads on Google linking to the seven sites between September 25-27. These ads must be removed by October 5. The government is also taking action against offshore websites. App stores and mobile networks will be required to install the filters blocking betting websites. Banks and payment processors will not be able to handle transactions related to betting under the rules Central Bank will set. Why is Brazil cracking down on betting? Key reasons for Brazil’s betting ban are the gambling addiction and the public health. The iGaming industry was legalized in Brazil in 2018, the regulated market started operating in January 2025. Since then, it was blamed for widespread household income losses due to gambling addiction Lula and his administration stated that the addiction of online games ruined too many lives and it is a serious issue for low-income families. In his announcement, Lula described the industry as a “cancer” that needs to be “either removed or will kill us”. The president added: We won’t allow betting companies to profit at the expense of Brazilian families’ income and lives. Millions of Brazilians spent massive debts on credit cards because of gambling loans. Finance Minister Dario Durigan said in the announcement: We are facing a public health issue involving online betting. It is a serious problem. Who will be affected by the Brazil betting ban? The licensed iGaming market of Brazil was worth about $5.7 billion in net revenue. Between January and August 2026 operators paid nearly $411.2 million in gambling taxes to Federal Revenue Service. Before the ban, the sector had been on track for record annual revenue of BRL16 billion by the end of the year. Betting Operators At the time of the announcement, Brazil had around 188 licensed brands. Each of these operators paid about $5.8 million for 5 years’ operating license in the country. Flutter Entertainment has announced that it will no longer be providing sports betting and online casino services in Brazil, estimating a negative revenue impact of $70 million and a negative adjusted earnings impact of $20 million in 2026 if the conflict continues for the year. Allwyn, which owns part of Betano’s parent company, Kaizen Gaming, believes Brazil to be the most important market for Betano. The company is now looking into legal avenues to protect its five-year license issued on January 1, 2025, and said that if the current conflict continues to 2027, then it will not be able to achieve its adjusted EBITDA margin goal of 37% for 2026. Offshore Betting Sites The ban is intended to eliminate the legal market.But industry associations indicate it just eliminates protection for players provided by regulation. According to ANJL, more than 30 million bettors are subject to thousands of illegal betting sites. Betting Affiliates Affiliates that don’t operate with Brazilian traffic or heavily exposed from this market are among the most affected ones. For example, Better Collective shares have fallen about a quarter of their value and the company expects losses of around €15 million based on the projected revenue of Q3 and Q4 2026. The level of affiliate exposure depends on the traffic that a particular operator gets from Brazil: the search request “best betting sites Brazil” brings commercial benefit only when the licensed entities are competing for the visitors therefore, affiliates that work only with Brazil traffic experience are more exposed than diversified, multi-market affiliates. Payment Providers Currently, financial institutions, including banks and payment systems such as Pix, do not process gaming transactions. The Central Bank is obliged to establish a mechanism for rejecting Pix transfers related to illegal betting activities. Illegal betting accounts can be forfeited to the state agency through the administrative process. This process stems from the order of September 14, which obliged payment service providers to control and cut off accounts linked to such illegal entities. Sports Clubs and Media Companies Betting companies are the major sponsors of 14 out of 20 of top football clubs in Brazil. A governmental study has shown that sponsorship by betting companies constitutes an average of 20% or $269.6 million of the payroll of the greatest clubs in Brazil, while such companies spend more than $443 million per year on gambling advertisements, which may result in the cutting down of media and advertising jobs. The ban involves not only media companies but other parties receiving sponsorship or advertising payments for the services of betting companies since the law regulates the industry connected to these payments. What happened to Brazil’s betting boom? Brazil’s regulated betting market had the fastest growth in the global iGaming industry and lasted less than 2 years. Sports betting was first legalized in 2018 but operated without regulatory framework. It was changed in 2023 by Lula signing Law 14.790, which created federal licensing framework for fixed-odds betting and online casino games. The regulated market launched in January 2025. Any operator who wanted to enter the market required to pay R$30 million licence fee for 5 years, use “.bet.br” domain and route the payments only through Pix, bank transfer, cash or crypto barred. In the first year, the market generated around R$37 billion in GGR from 79 licensed operators. International brands and operators were leading the market. The main two largest operators were Betano and bet365. The regulatory tightening began far before the latest total ban. In March, banks were ordered to freeze unlicensed operators’ accounts in 24 hours. By July, the Finance Ministry introduced new “tobacco-style” warning labels on betting ads. In the middle of 2026, around 5 million Brazilians couldn’t access betting websites. This restrictions brought to illegal market growth. Between January and September 2026, more than 66,000 illegal betting domains were blocked by the authorities. In June, IBJR and ANJL publicly backed a new decree allowed the state to freeze illegal operators’ funds. All these steps led to shutdown of the market entirely in September 2026. Brazil betting ban: What operators, regulators and the market are saying The industry’s reaction to the new MP 1.394 was very different. The government is defending public health emergencies. Regulators and industry authorities are informing compliance and warnings. Operators are counting their losses. Regulators The SPA has largely perfected the process of closing down the licensing system it has worked on for almost two years now, without having made any comment on the. The Central Bank has been given the responsibility of creating a technical mechanism that will prevent the illegal transfers of Pix even if the ban is passed by Congress. Industry bodies The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) announced a legal proceedings initiation that will be against the ban. The day after the betting ban announcement, The Bet Legal platform reported about 415 new illegal betting sites. The increase of illegal platforms reached 141%. ANJL President Plínio Lemos Jorge said: The clandestine websites have expanded their offerings and continue to operate outside the law and oversight. Now, they will take advantage of the prohibition of legal betting to attract bettors to the illegal market. National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) filed a lawsuit to suspend the Provisional Measure No. 1,394/2026. The organizations are warning about unsettled legal and legislative issues, so the prohibition needs to be on hold for now. Betting operators Flutter stopped operating in Brazil immediately and counted almost $70 million revenue cut in 2026. Allwyn is preparing legal actions against the government to protect its licence. bet365 called Brazil’s betting ban unconstitutional. The operator pointed out that the ban would undermine customer protection and responsible gaming practices in favor of illegal gambling providers. A bet365 spokesperson stated: bet365 is disappointed and deeply concerned for the ongoing welfare of our customers caused by the contents of the presidential decree banning online betting and gaming in Brazil. We are firmly of the view that this decree is unconstitutional and will only serve to push customers away from the regulated sector to the unsafe illegal black market online which pays no tax and has no standards on responsible gaming. Entain informed its stakeholders that Brazil was predicted to contribute around 5 percent to the online net gaming revenue of 2026, and only a little change in earnings will be there. Kambi’s CEO Werner Bercher’s remarks were more soothing by stating that Brazil only holds a very small share of the group revenue and he does not expect any significant financial impact. What happens next for Brazil’s betting market? The future of betting in Brazil will be determined by Congress and the elections scheduled for October 4. The authorities announced that they would keep monitoring the platforms to make sure that ads have been removed. They proposed organizing technical meetings with representatives of major tech companies. The relative ministries have prepared a report according to which the authorities should get rid of the ads that have been placed after the passing of the decree as soon as possible. Will the betting ban remain in place? MP 1.394 was enacted right away however it still must be validated by Congress in a period of 120 days. It is anticipated that the lawmakers will not start discussions about the document before the second round of the presidential elections. The gambling companies state that they will also challenge the prohibition in court in the attempt to continue their operations before Congress debates the matter. Regulus believes that the total ban on legal gambling in Brazil will not happen, predicting only a 5% possibility of it being in place. Instead, they expect the total blackout to last for several months and estimate its possibility to be at 85%. The Regulus note stated: The scale of industrial damage that such a blackout can do should not be underestimated. There is also a clear danger that a Lula victory followed by a PM defeat will lead to tighter gambling regulations of the performative sort that drive the black market rather than protect players. Estimates show that the industry may have a 10% possibility of winning a court case before the deadline, which would lead to its closure. Some calculations point out that there is an 85% chance that all operations will continue without any activities of Congress. Regulus is confident that Flávio Bolsonaro has a 45% possibility of winning the elections which could end a betting ban although the gaming operators are likely to continue working. It is estimated that Lula may win the first round of the presidential elections with a 40% probability, but he will not win outright in this round. Will Brazil introduce a new betting framework? Even before the prohibition, the legislators were working on amending the country’s Betting Law. Three pieces of legislation have been brought before Congress to change or significantly limit the existing framework: the draft law PLN 2,972/2026 proposes to completely ban fixed-odds gambling and fully abolish the existing law, while the draft law PLN 4,977/2026 would prohibit advertising gambling and sponsoring sporting events while preserving the current operator licenses until the expiration date. The government has also circulated a draft law prohibiting the operation, advertisement and use of personal data for recruiting for fixed-odds gambling, which will result in up to 6 years in jail, but not a provisional decree as the Constitution does not provide for the creation of sanctiones. What happens to existing betting investments? For entering the Brazilian market operators paid R$30 million each. The SPA has not mentioned if those fees will be refunded. The Finance Ministry estimates that around R$1.7 billion or $330 million will return back to the bettor’s account balances. This amount must be withdrawn until 5 October 23:59. Betting ads should come down with 10 days of the new measure. The final result of the bandepends fully on votes of Congress. IBJR and ABRAJOGO argue that Lula’s betting ban undermines the legal certainty of those companies that created their business in Brazil laws. There are also several warnings of the ban damaging investor trust in Brazil’s regulatory framework, beyond the iGaming. industry Could Brazil’s betting crackdown impact Latin America? Brazil has one of the largest regulated betting and gambling markets in Latin America in less than two years. As mentioned above, the regulated market in the country reached about $5.7 billion annually before the ban. In a regional trajectory, the ban in Brazil will mean a loss of a large market. So far, other big markets like Colombia continue to run regulated market through Coljuegos, which licenses operators and requires responsible gambling measures. According to Coljuegos, Colombia had a total of 15 licensed online operators in May 2026. The total revenue generated by gambling in Colombia and transferred for subsidized health care during this period was around 977 billion Colombian pesos (approximately US$290 million). The Colombian gambling model incorporates various mechanisms to tackle gambling harm. Coljuegos reported that during 2024-2025, 245,199 people opted for self-exclusion from online gambling websites. This mechanism allows users to exclude themselves from legal gambling websites and is part of the responsible-gaming policy in Colombia. While the provisional bill is already creating a certain number of concerns for operators, advertisers and football clubs sponsoring various events, the long-term future of the regulation will depend on whether the Congress members will be able to approve this law in 120 days. What impact Brazil’s betting ban has on global iGaming industry The betting ban in Brazil will rise concerns of the illegal gambling industry. As the legal framework shuts down, more players will use illegal sites. As ANJL mentioned back in May, blocking legal sites is a mistake for Brazil. The ban on gambling opens up the illegal market to bettors who can’t access licensed platforms. For the international sector, the ban will harm many operators and businesses who have chosen Brazil as one of their operating markets. The brands and operators may lose their fees which were paid for entering the market, as the refund is unclear. Also, they’ll have a loss of players and bettors’ community, which will cause a decrease in net revenue. The industry giants, like Flutter and Entain, have already spoken about the impacts of revenue loss.