Lula Signs Brazil’s Betting Ban and Starts a 30-Day Countdown

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure No. 1,394 on September 25, 2026, enacting an immediate nationwide ban on fixed-odds sports wagering and online casino games across the Federative Republic of Brazil. Published in an extraordinary edition of the Diário Oficial da União, the executive decree revokes core provisions of Law No. 14,790/2023, the statutory framework that established Brazil’s regulated gambling market, and initiates a mandatory 30-day operational termination schedule for all licensed operators.

Issued under Article 62 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, which empowers the President to enact measures with immediate force of law in cases of urgency and relevance, the decree applies nationally to both federal authorization holders and state lottery concessions.

The signed text answers the question that was still open when Lula promised to end the bets, when aides were still arguing over scope, and a narrower option, the draft decree on online casino games, had been on the table earlier in the month. The final measure takes both products, and it doesn’t pay operators a cent to leave.

Sports Bets and Casino Games Both Go

Article 1 prohibits “the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising” of fixed-odds betting, in physical or virtual form, including by operators based abroad that serve people in Brazil. The ban expressly covers bets on real sports events and on “virtual online game events”, the legal category for Slots and for games like the one Brazilians call the “jogo do tigrinho”. Other lotteries authorized by law are untouched. State lottery licenses fall on the same 30-day clock as the federal ones.

The measure reaches well past the operators. Advertising and sponsorship are banned in any medium, with 10 days to take down ads and sponsor signage. Banks and payment institutions, including instant payments such as Pix, may no longer process betting transactions beyond the refunds. Internet platforms and app stores face fines of up to 10% of their group’s Brazilian revenue if betting content keeps circulating.

It also sharpens the account-blocking power the Finance Ministry gave itself this month. Money held in blocked accounts of illegal operators can now be declared forfeit to the federal government in an administrative process, without a prior court case, and sent to the National Public Security Fund.

The Wind-Down Calendar

New deposits were barred from publication day. The government’s timeline, built on the deadlines in Articles 7 to 9, runs like this:

• Until 11:59 p.m. on October 5: players can withdraw their balances voluntarily.
• October 6: betting sites and apps go offline, and app stores and network providers must block them.
• October 7-8: operators send their banks each player’s balance, listed by CPF tax number.
• October 9-14: banks refund the money, preferably to the account it came from.
• From October 14: where a refund can’t be made, the funds go to Caixa Econômica Federal, the state bank, which pays players out.

Bets still open when the sites close are void, and the stake comes back in full with no deductions. An operator that misses the two-day reporting step faces a daily fine of R$200,000. The Finance Ministry estimates about R$1.7 billion is sitting in player accounts waiting to be returned.

No Refund on R$2.55 Billion in License Fees

The sharpest line for operators is in Article 4. The termination is for “reasons of public interest” and gives an operator no right to a refund, “total or partial”, of the grant fee, or to compensation from the state. The government says it has issued 85 licenses at R$30 million each, a total of R$2.55 billion.

Operators are heading to court. Carlos Lima, chief executive of the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming, confirmed the industry will sue and said the measure creates legal uncertainty. ANJL, another trade association, said in a statement cited by Reuters that the ban would push more than 30 million gamblers onto illegal websites.

The government says it is ready. Jorge Messias, head of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), told CNN Brasil: “Every aspect of the provisional measure was rigorously validated from a legal standpoint by the AGU.”

Football Stands to Lose Its Sponsors

Flamengo put out a statement on Friday before the signing. “Gambling won’t end with a stroke of a pen. What ends is the part that Brazil can regulate, oversee, tax and hold accountable,” the club said. Betting firms sponsored 13 of the 20 Série A clubs and put more than R$1 billion into those deals, Estadão reported the week before.

Congress Gets 120 Days, After the Vote

A Provisional Measure is valid for 60 days, extendable once for another 60, and lapses unless Congress converts it into law. Lawmakers are not expected to start on it until after the presidential runoff, CNN Brasil reported. The first round is on October 4, and polls show Lula in a tight race with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who called the ban “populist, hypocritical and politically motivated,” according to Reuters.

The government also sent Congress a bill to criminalize the trade. It proposes 4-6 years in prison for running fixed-odds betting and 2-4 years for promoting it or facilitating its payments.

A Five-Year License Cut Short

The money at stake is large. The federal government collected R$9.91 billion in taxes from betting companies between January and August 2026, according to Federal Revenue Service data cited by Exame. The Finance Ministry estimates households spend around R$60 billion a year on online betting, and JPMorgan said Evolution gets about 9% of its sales from Brazil, Reuters reported.

Licensed operators have only been allowed to offer services nationwide since January 2025, and each paid for a five-year authorization. Under Article 4, all of them end on October 25.