Overview
- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a provisional executive order on Friday that immediately halts the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of online betting in Brazil.
- Officials set Oct. 5 as the deadline for users to withdraw funds from betting accounts and told app stores and network providers to start blocking betting sites on Oct. 6.
- The government paired the ban with a new consumer debt plan that pledges 15 billion reais to buy and restructure up to 150 billion reais of delinquent household loans at a November auction.
- Industry groups, major football clubs and presidential rival Flávio Bolsonaro called the move politically driven and warned it will cost tax revenue, end sponsorship deals and push gamblers to illegal platforms, while operators and trade groups plan legal challenges.
- The measure reverses a recent regulatory opening that legalized online betting in 2018, set rules in 2023 and allowed licensed national operations from January 2025, a market the government estimates now involves tens of billions of reais in household spending and roughly 10 billion reais in annual tax revenue.