Brazil Betting Ban Orders Legal Sites Shut by October 6

A new Brazil betting ban orders licensed sportsbooks and online casinos to close, with websites and apps scheduled to go offline from October 6. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure 1,394 on September 25, prohibiting fixed-odds betting while setting a transition period for withdrawals and outstanding payments.

Brazil’s licensed betting market faces closure

The published measure turns the earlier Lula betting ban proposal into an operative prohibition. Its reach extends beyond illegal websites: it covers the regulated businesses that received permission to operate, as well as foreign operators offering fixed-odds bets to people located in Brazil.

Fixed-odds bets pay according to an agreed multiplier. The prohibition encompasses wagers on real sporting events and online casino games, through physical or virtual channels. State and Federal District authorizations are included. Other lottery modalities already authorized by law are expressly excluded.

The reversal follows a short period of federal regulation. The Finance Ministry identifies 2018 as the legalization of fixed-odds sports betting and 2023 as the legal framework for online games. The nationally licensed market began operating on January 1, 2025, with authorized sites using the .bet.br domain.

What changes before October 6

The Health Ministry says formerly authorized operators can no longer offer bets. New deposits are prohibited from publication of the measure, while customers retain access during the withdrawal and settlement window. That window should not be read as permission to continue placing new wagers.

The government’s published timetable sets October 5 at 11:59 p.m. as the voluntary withdrawal deadline, followed by website and app shutdowns from October 6. Separately, Article 4 terminates existing authorizations after 30 days; it expressly preserves the obligations and restrictions applying during the transition.

Advertising is also being withdrawn. The measure prohibits betting promotion and sponsorship and gives operators ten days to remove advertising and sponsorship material. It makes a limited exception for content published before the measure in which betting advertising appears incidentally.

What happens to balances and open bets

The shutdown does not extinguish customers’ claims. Article 7 makes open bets void if their results have not been determined by the access cutoff, requiring the full stake to be returned without deductions. Winnings from bets whose results are determined by that cutoff remain payable.

Missing the voluntary withdrawal window also does not mean forfeiting an account balance. Operators must make the money available and provide banks and payment institutions with customer-by-customer repayment information within two days after access closes. The records identify each customer by CPF, Brazil’s individual taxpayer number.

Banks then have seven days from receiving that information to return the money to an active account belonging to the customer, preferably the account from which the funds originated. Amounts that cannot be returned through that route must go to a designated Caixa Econômica Federal account for repayment under Finance Ministry supervision. Operators remain responsible for shortfalls and unpaid obligations.

Consumer protection and the illegal-market dispute

The government presents the ban as a response to household debt and gambling-related harm. It expands far beyond the targeted approach described in Dyutam’s coverage of Desenrola-linked betting restrictions. Consumer organization Idec supports closure and says implementation must protect customers, secure repayment and prevent activity from migrating to the illegal market.

The Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável, which represents betting businesses, takes the opposite position. In a statement reported by Broadcast, it argued that the government was dismantling a framework under which companies had paid authorization fees, hired staff, built systems and signed contracts. It warned that demand would move to clandestine operators and that customers would lose regulated safeguards.

That is an industry forecast, not an observed result of the shutdown. It also reflects operators’ financial exposure: the measure expressly rules out authorization-fee refunds and government compensation. Whether those provisions withstand any future challenge is a separate question from what the text currently requires.

The enforcement task changes with the policy. Brazil previously built biometric controls and website-blocking systems around a legal market. Finance Minister Dario Durigan now says authorities will intensify action against platforms remaining available after the shutdown deadline, Agência Brasil reported. The measure also restricts payment processing while preserving transactions needed for closure and customer refunds.

Congress still determines the ban’s future

A medida provisória, or provisional measure, has force of law before Congress completes its review. Congress’s procedural rules provide for an initial 60-day period, automatically extended once for another 60 days if voting has not concluded in both houses. Congressional approval is required for conversion into permanent law; rejection or expiry has separate constitutional consequences.

The Justice Ministry also announced a separate bill proposing criminal offenses involving betting operations, promotion, customer data, payments and internet applications. Those proposed offenses should not be confused with penalties already enacted by MP 1,394.

The immediate milestones are the customer withdrawal deadline and the removal of betting sites and apps. Congressional review, payment implementation and any subsequent court decisions can still affect how the shutdown proceeds.

FAQs

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Sources

• Provisional Measure 1,394, September 25, 2026 — Presidency of Brazil; scope, transition, refunds, advertising and enforcement.
• Government shutdown and withdrawal timetable — Agência Gov, via the Health Ministry, September 25.
• President signs provisional measure prohibiting bets — Health Ministry, September 25.
• Betting prohibition, repayment process and separate criminal-law proposal — Justice Ministry, September 25.
• Durigan outlines blocking of sites remaining online after the deadline — Agência Brasil, September 25.
• Fixed-odds betting: the earlier legal and authorization framework — Finance Ministry / Secretariat of Prizes and Betting.
• Understanding the legislative process — Chamber of Deputies; provisional measures and congressional review.
• Congress Resolution 1/2002, updated text — National Congress; Article 10 provides the 60-day extension rule.
• Idec supports ending betting operations — Instituto de Defesa de Consumidores, September 25.
• IBJR responds to the prohibition — Broadcast / Estadão, September 25.
• Official Lula portrait — Ricardo Stuckert/PR, Palácio do Planalto, via Wikimedia Commons; CC BY 2.0. Adapted as the likeness reference for the AI-generated featured illustration.