Key Takeaways
- Brazil’s government is drafting a decree that would prohibit online casino games outright.
- Licensed operators paid $5.8 million each for five-year licenses now at risk.
- Football clubs put their sponsorship exposure at about $194.9 million a year.
An Extinction-Level Threat
President Lula, who is less than three weeks from an election with negative approval ratings, has called betting a disease rather than a game this week, and the induction of innocents into an addiction. The instrument his government is preparing is a provisional measure setting out a total ban.
A provisional measure takes effect on publication and is only afterward sent to Congress, where lawmakers have 60 days to convert it into law. The ruling Workers’ Party filed a bill to ban online gambling outright in April, which went nowhere, explaining this choice.
Operators and clubs had expected limits on casino games or curbs on advertising placement and scheduling rather than a ban. As of Wednesday night, the decision was to ban everything, according to UOL, whose reporters described the government as treating the text as close to an extinction of online gaming in the country. The restriction on sports betting is still subject to a final adjustment, with several options on the table, but the position as of midweek was prohibition.
Brazil’s regulated market has been running since the beginning of 2025. The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, the Finance Ministry body that licenses the sector, currently registers 85 authorized companies, according to the operators’ association ABRAJOGO. Each license costs $5.8 million (R$30 million, at Sept. 17 rates), covers up to three brands and runs for five years, with authorized sites operating on .bet.br domains. Brazilian football estimates it would lose around $194.9 million (R$1 billion) in sponsorship. Flamengo, Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo each hold betting deals worth more than $19.5 million (R$100 million) a year, and the clubs are drafting a joint statement calling the initiative electioneering and a product of the government’s failure to confront illegal gambling. Broadcasters are also resisting, since they carry the advertising – Globo, which broadcasts the football, owns a betting operation of its own.
Operators intend to take the measure to court, and the regional precedent is not encouraging for a decree-first approach: Colombia’s courts blocked President Gustavo Petro’s emergency gambling VAT and forced him to seek congressional approval instead. Compliance body ABC-BET’s open letter asks the government not to weaken the regulated market but to break the economic chain supporting illegal platforms, through cooperation with banks, payment processors and advertising networks. Brazil has moved in that direction before, gaining the power to freeze illegal operators’ funds rather than merely block their sites in June, and ordering tobacco-style warnings on all betting advertising in July. The regulator itself has argued for milder restrictions on licensed operators and for directing enforcement at clandestine platforms instead.
