President orders Brazil’s fixed-odds betting market to shut days before election

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a provisional order to prohibit sports betting at fixed odds and online games, less than two years after Brazil opened its regulated market.

The order, signed last week, bars firms from operating, offering, arranging or advertising fixed-odds betting in Brazil, online or in person. It also applies to overseas operators offering bets to people in Brazil and covers wagers on sporting events and virtual games.

New deposits are already banned. Bettors have until 11.59pm on October 5 to withdraw account balances, and platforms must go offline from 6 October under the Health Ministry’s published timetable. Advertising and sponsorship material must be removed by 5 October. Congress must approve the measure within 120 days for it to remain in force.

Lula signed the order nine days ahead of the presidential election’s first round. A separate bill proposes criminal offences for operating or promoting fixed-odds betting, but would also require congressional approval.

Brazil authorised sports betting in 2018, then passed a law regulating and taxing fixed-odds betting in December 2023. Licensed national operations began on 1 January 2025. A Waterhouse VC update published by *The Straight* last year described the industry’s move from a grey market towards licensed operators.

Federal Revenue Service figures reported by *Folha de S.Paulo* put the sector’s 2025 revenue at R$36.9 billion and its tax payments at R$9.9 billion. Betting-related tax receipts reached R$4.5 billion in the first four months of 2026, up from R$2.2 billion in the same period last year.

The government said 85 authorisations had been issued at R$30 million each, bringing in R$2.55 billion. The order extinguishes them after 30 days and rules out refunds of authorisation fees or compensation for lost profits and investments.

Lula said the ban was intended to address the damage gambling has done to family finances. “It’s like cancer, you take out the tumour, or the tumour will kill us,” he told journalists in São Paulo.

The Health Ministry said betting-related attendances in the public health system rose about 140 per cent from 2018 to 2025. It cited a study estimating R$38.8 billion in annual social costs associated with gambling, including R$30.6 billion in health costs.

An Atlas/Bloomberg survey published this week found 59.9 per cent of Brazilian adults supported banning internet betting. Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula’s Liberal Party opponent, called the crackdown “populist, hypocritical and politically motivated” at a Friday campaign rally.

Brazilian football clubs face the loss of a major source of sponsorship income. Thirteen of the 20 top-flight clubs had betting brands as their main shirt sponsors. Grêmio announced a three-year deal with Pitaco on 23 September, two days before the order, reported to be worth R$140 million. The club said the effect on football revenues still needed to be assessed.

Broadcaster Globo put betting firms’ payments to Brazil’s leading clubs at R$1.1 billion in 2025. The Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming, which represents around 75 per cent of the domestic sector, said the ban could send bettors to illegal operators and deprive them of protections available on licensed sites.

“The ban also doesn’t eliminate existing demand,” the institute said. It called for tighter regulation instead of prohibition.

Brazilian horse-race wagering has a separate statutory basis under a 1984 law, as outlined by PCV Advogados. The order targets fixed-odds betting and excludes other authorised lottery types; it does not expressly abolish racing’s separate regime.