Brazil’s betting ban starts now, but Congress holds its future

Brazil’s licensed betting sites must stop taking new deposits immediately, and are due to go offline on 6 October—two days after the country’s first-round election. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s provisional measure bans fixed-odds sports betting and online casino-style games nationwide, but the ban’s long-term survival depends on Congress.¹²³

• The measure covers betting on real sporting events and online games, including state-authorised operations. Other types of lotteries authorised by law are exempt.¹
• Bettors can access sites and apps until 23:59 on 5 October to withdraw their balances. Operators must then provide banks with account-by-account repayment details; the government says banks will return funds from 9 to 14 October, with Caixa Econômica Federal handling cases where repayment is blocked.²
• The ban reaches beyond betting companies: it bars new advertising, sponsorship and promotions immediately, and requires existing physical and digital adverts and sponsorship signs to be removed within ten days.¹
• Brazil’s audit office reported that 79 authorised firms had 25.2 million participants in 2025. The measure now cuts off that legal market, but needs congressional approval to remain in force: Brazil’s constitution gives provisional measures immediate force, but says they lapse if Congress does not convert them into law within 60 days, with one possible 60-day extension.⁴⁵

The timing puts the wind-down across election day, scheduled for 4 October. But the sites’ shutdown is not the end of the transition: banks are due to return balances after the vote, while Congress still has to decide whether Lula’s ban becomes lasting law.²³⁵

The government is also putting the practical burden of enforcement on payment firms, app stores, internet platforms and other authorities. That may close the legal market quickly; whether it can also prevent illegal operators from filling the gap is a separate question.¹

Footnotes

1. Provisional Measure No. 1,394, published 25 September 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security: ban and withdrawal timetable. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court: 2026 election dates. ↩ ↩²

4. Brazilian Federal Audit Court: 2025 management report. ↩

5. Constitution of Brazil, Article 62. ↩ ↩²