Brazil: From Latin America's Largest Regulated Market to a Nationwide Betting Ban

Few markets have attracted as much attention from the global gaming industry as Brazil. Fixed-odds betting was legally approved in 2018, and full regulation came into effect on 1 January 2025 under Law 14.790/2023, supervised by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) within the Ministry of Finance.

In 2026 the story changed dramatically. After a year of tightening enforcement, the federal government issued Provisional Measure 1.394/2026 on 25 September, prohibiting fixed-odds betting nationwide. Since 6 October, licensed betting sites and apps in Brazil have been offline.

A large market in its first year

According to SPA data published in January 2026, the regulated market generated gross gaming revenue of around BRL 37 billion (roughly USD 7 billion) in 2025. Seventy-nine authorised companies reported that 25.2 million Brazilians placed bets, and federal tax collection from the sector approached BRL 10 billion. By the time of the ban, 188 authorised brands were operating on mandatory .bet.br domains.

Industry participants described a market with no honeymoon period. Taxation, advertising limits and player protection — debates that usually take years — arrived almost immediately: GGR tax rising from 12% to 13% in 2026, biometric identity checks, mandatory blocking of welfare recipients, and a proposed ban on gambling advertising in Congress.

Enforcement intensifies: licensed brands suspended

Enforcement steadily moved from illegal operators to licensed ones. On 13 and 14 August 2026 the SPA adopted seven precautionary measures and ordered the immediate suspension of 14 licensed betting sites run by six operators, following sanctioning processes opened in August 2025. The reasons cited included:

• Failures to transmit required data to Sigap, the system the SPA uses to monitor betting volumes and revenue in real time
• Failures to implement effective responsible-gaming controls for monitoring users
• Missing documentation needed to verify a company's actual shareholding structure
• Suspended sites could only allow players to withdraw funds, with daily fines of BRL 200,000 for non-compliance

The nationwide ban: Provisional Measure 1.394/2026

On 25 September 2026 the government published Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, prohibiting the operation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting in Brazil — covering both sports betting and online casino games, and including operators based abroad that serve Brazilian players. State-level authorisations are also being terminated. Other lotteries authorised by law are not affected.

The government justified the measure by pointing to household debt, mental-health concerns and the exposure of young people to betting. The transition timetable has been strict:

• 25 September: no new deposits permitted on betting platforms
• Until 5 October: players could voluntarily withdraw their balances
• From 6 October: betting sites and apps must be unavailable — only one of 188 authorised sites was still online on day one
• 9–14 October: banks to return remaining balances, with around BRL 1.3 billion owed to roughly 26.5 million bettors
• 25 October: all existing federal authorisations are extinguished, with no refund of licence fees

What happens next

A provisional measure takes effect immediately but must be approved by Congress within 120 days to become permanent law; the deliberation period runs to late November 2026. Its final form could still change, and legal challenges from the industry are widely expected.

In the meantime, the measure also bans advertising, sponsorship and payments connected to betting, and creates an inter-agency committee to block sites, apps and financial transactions linked to illegal operators.

What it means for affiliates and long-term owners

Brazil is a stark reminder that regulatory risk is the defining variable in gaming. A market can move from opening to prohibition within two years, and businesses concentrated in a single jurisdiction carry that risk in full. For affiliates, the advertising ban removes Brazil as a destination for compliant acquisition while the measure stands.

From a holding-company perspective, the lesson is diversification across markets, channels and partners — and the discipline to build businesses that can adapt when the rules change overnight. We will continue to follow developments in Congress closely.

Sources

This article draws on reporting from iGaming Business, Yogonet, Folha de S.Paulo, Estadão, BNLData and Intergame, as well as official publications from Brazil's Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, the Senate and the Planalto. Figures are as reported at the time of publication.