On September 25, 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced a ban on the operations of online bookmakers and licensed betting companies. The provisional measure took effect immediately: operators were barred from accepting new deposits, and as of October 6, licensed sites and apps must cease operations.

The decision came out of the blue: the regulated market had existed for less than two years, and nearly 90 operators had already paid 30 million reais each for their licenses. Now companies, players, affiliates, and advertising platforms find themselves in a state of deep legal and financial uncertainty.

On 3S.INFO, we urgently break down the fallout of the decision for players, operators, affiliates, and the sports industry, from the troubles with refunds and lost investments to the risk of a rapid surge in illegal gambling. We pay special attention to the social and political backdrop of the ban, the possible scenarios for how events may unfold, and the practical steps market participants should take.

iGaming in Brazil: What Happened and When

  • September 25, 2026: the government's provisional measure is published. Licensed operators are barred from accepting new deposits.
  • Until October 5: players may request withdrawals on their own.
  • October 6: licensed bookmaker sites and apps must be blocked and switched off.
  • October 7–8: operators must consolidate client balances by CPF, the Brazilian individual taxpayer ID.
  • October 9–14: operators are required to return funds to players through partner banks.
  • From October 14: if problems arise with an operator or a bank, refunds can be handled by the state-owned Caixa Econômica Federal.
  • October 25: according to industry reports, licenses issued under the 2023 law may lapse 30 days after the measure's publication.

The ban extends beyond companies registered in Brazil. In the published clarifications, it also covers foreign operators accepting bets from users located in the country. Organizing bets, acting as an intermediary, and advertising are likewise in the crosshairs.

The government intends to send an urgent bill to Congress introducing criminal liability. The sanction under discussion for those who organize, run, or promote betting is four to six years in prison plus a fine. For organizations processing payments, the penalty is set at two to four years. For now, these sanctions are described as provisions of a future bill, not as a criminal norm already in force.

Gambling in Brazil: A Brief Regulatory History

The Brazilian market evolved in stages:

  1. In 2018, Law No. 13.756 laid the groundwork for legalizing fixed-odds betting.
  2. In December 2023, President Lula signed Law No. 14.790, known as the Lei das Bets. It covered betting on real sporting events and fixed-odds online games, including virtual casinos.
  3. In 2024–2025, the Ministry of Finance and the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, or SPA, drafted the implementing regulations.
  4. In 2025, the licensed model went live: operators had to obtain authorization and comply with requirements on advertising, customer identification, responsible gambling, payments, and taxes.
  5. In September 2026, the federal government decided to wind down the model almost immediately after its full launch.
  6. For more on how gambling in Brazil developed up to September 2026, see our overview: How to Run Traffic to Betting and Gambling in Brazil?

The current crisis, then, is not merely a ban on individual casinos or advertising formats. It is a reversal of state policy: from formalization and control to the de facto shutdown of the national regulated market.

What Has Been Banned in Brazil?

The following categories are primarily affected:

  • betting on real sporting events;
  • online casinos;
  • fixed-odds games;
  • virtual gaming products, including formats previously covered by the Lei das Bets;
  • organizing, intermediating, and promoting such bets;
  • foreign sites serving clients located in Brazil.

Questions remain around certain types of games. Poker, in particular, cannot automatically be considered fully banned in every format: the legal treatment may hinge on whether a given product qualifies as a fixed-odds game, a casino game, or another type of activity. Operators and affiliates will have to wait for official clarifications from the SPA, the text of the provisional measure, and court rulings.

A thorny issue also remains around regional lotteries and state-regulated betting. The federal government has yet to resolve the conflict between the federal ban and the powers of individual states.

Why Brazil Suddenly Banned iGaming: Causes and Precedents

The ban on iGaming in Brazil was the product of a mix of social, economic, and political factors, rather than a sudden decision out of nowhere. Let us break down the causes and underlying conditions that led to the shutdown of the regulated market.

Social Causes

President Lula and Finance Minister Dario Durigan attributed the decision to the spread of gambling addiction and the damage to family finances. In the government's view, the regulatory mechanisms already in place, namely restrictions, advertising controls, and responsible gambling measures, had proven insufficient. Lula called online gambling a "cancer" that had to be excised and likened gambling addiction to crack addiction. The government cited the following figures:

  • household spending: in 2025, gambling drained 62.5 billion reais from family budgets;
  • social costs: the Ministry of Health put the annual harm from gambling at 38.8 billion reais.

Lula separately criticized the situation in which sports clubs and teams had come to depend on sponsorship money from betting platforms.


The authorities also link betting to household debt, aggressive advertising, and the involvement of vulnerable groups.

Public Opinion: Why Brazilians Are Against It

The ban drew substantial public support. According to an AtlasIntel/Bloomberg poll conducted between September 17 and 22 among 5,015 adults, 75% of respondents backed a ban on online betting, 17% opposed it, and another 8% were undecided. Back in April, support for a ban stood at 73%.

This is an important political signal: the betting issue has ceased to be an industry matter and has become a matter of broad public demand.

Brazil's 2026 Presidential Election

The decision was announced nine days before the first round of the presidential election. Brazilian media and experts read the ban as a move likely to strengthen Lula's standing in the campaign: the president has taken a position backed by most voters. The BBC noted that the betting issue had moved to the center of the election fight, including amid competition with Flávio Bolsonaro.

Industry associations, by contrast, see the decision as politically motivated. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) said the ban may be aimed at securing electoral gain and violates the principles of free enterprise.

Consequence No. 1: The Rapid Rise of the Illegal Market

The central paradox of the ban is that it may not eliminate demand, but redirect it toward illegal operators.

According to an LCA study prepared for the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming, the illegal betting market may already be generating between 32.9 and 43.3 billion reais in gross gaming revenue annually. Lost tax revenue is estimated at 9.1–12 billion reais per year.

The ANJL warned that after the online casino ban, the illegal market's share could climb from roughly 41% to 78–82%. In a single week, from September 11 to 18, the association identified 6,409 accessible illegal domains.

The first signs of a reaction appeared almost immediately. According to the monitoring platform Bet Legal, 428 new illegal betting sites sprang up in Brazil between September 25 and 27. In the week from September 21 to 27, 674 new domains were recorded.

In the illegal segment, players are stripped of:

  • guaranteed withdrawals;
  • complaints procedures;
  • protection against manipulation and unfair terms;
  • self-exclusion mechanisms;
  • transparent identification of the owner and the payment intermediary;
  • tax and consumer oversight.

The ban may therefore create a situation in which the very social problem that justified shutting down the legal market becomes harder to control.

Consequence No. 2: Who Got Hit?

The ban struck not only operators but every participant in Brazil's iGaming market: players, affiliates, webmasters, advertising platforms, and sports clubs. Here is what threats emerged for each group and what actions can help limit the damage.

Ordinary Players

Players should first of all document their balance, betting history, bonus terms, and correspondence with support. By October 5, they must file a withdrawal request rather than wait for the site to shut down automatically.

Practical steps:

  • request a withdrawal to your own verified payment method;
  • save the confirmation of the request and the ticket number;
  • take screenshots of the balance, open bets, and unsettled wagers;
  • do not hand over your CPF, banking details, or documents to unknown "refund intermediaries";
  • do not transfer money to a new site promising to "migrate" your balance;
  • in the event of a dispute, turn to the operator, the bank, and official state support channels.

A particular risk comes from fraudulent emails and Telegram accounts offering expedited refunds.

Experts reckon a blanket betting ban will drive hardcore gamblers into the shadow sector, leaving them even more exposed, even though the stated aim of the ban is to ease the debt burden on the poorest segments of the population. On top of that, the usual winners from such a ban will be the illegal operators: where the black market now accounts for roughly 41% of bets, that share is set to rise to 78–82% once the ban takes hold.

  • Important! Balance payouts are scheduled for October 6. Veiko Krünberg, former managing director of OlyBet/Betsson, warns that on the day of the shutdown, every player in the country will rush to withdraw their money at once, a load the industry has never faced. Many may never receive their payouts: once an operator's license has been revoked, it no longer has any levers to pull. This is the most underrated risk in the situation: it erodes player trust in every brand, including those that may emerge in the future.

If operators or banks fail to cope, the state-owned bank Caixa will take over refunds from October 14. The risk remains, but it is a different one: not the chaos of October 6, but whether that schedule will actually be met and what happens to the money owed to affiliates, for whom no such schedule exists.

Gambling and Betting Operators

Operators will need to:

  • immediately halt deposit acceptance;
  • shut down marketing campaigns and bonus mechanics;
  • reconcile client balances;
  • organize refunds through the banking infrastructure;
  • preserve transaction and KYC data;
  • prepare for litigation;
  • assess claims for license refunds and compensation for investments.

Fallout of the Ban for Brazilian iGaming Operators

The decree signed by President Lula da Silva on September 25 imposing a full ban on gambling relieves the authorities of any obligation to compensate betting companies for early termination or to refund license fees. It is precisely this clause that industry representatives intend to challenge in court.

The government's rationale: the decree states that licenses were terminated in the public interest, meaning companies have no right to demand back the fees they paid or compensation for investments and lost profits.

The scale of the issue: at the time the decree was signed, 85 licenses were active in the country at $5.75 million each, meaning operators had paid a total of $489 million into the treasury.

Society, Sports, and the Budget

The cost to the budget: with betting no longer accepted, the federal treasury will lose more than $153 million every month. Since the regulated market launched, following the passage of the Betting Law in December 2023, revenues have reached nearly $3 billion, not counting concession fees. Under that law, the funds were channeled into sports, tourism, public security, and social programs.

On sports specifically: next week, the government will meet with representatives of football clubs to head off a revolt among teams sponsored in part by bookmakers. The biggest recipient of betting money was Flamengo, which now stands to lose $51.5 million in annual revenue. The club has already said it has no "Plan B."

Affiliates and Webmasters

For affiliates, the main risk is not only lost income, but a change in how advertising is classified. Once a dedicated criminal law is passed, promoting betting could carry far more serious consequences, especially when it involves direct targeting of a Brazilian audience.

The most exposed are:

  • Brazilian influencers;
  • Portuguese-language Telegram channels;
  • SEO sites with BR geotargeting;
  • ad networks and agencies;
  • owners of domains redirecting users to offshore brands;
  • payment intermediaries;
  • affiliates who keep using old licenses as a mark of trust.

Even if an operator is registered outside Brazil, that does not automatically mean promoting to Brazilian users is safe.

Affiliate Checklist for This Week

  • Stop traffic to licensed Brazilian brands: deposits are no longer being accepted.
  • Export your stats and screenshot dashboards and terms while they are still available.
  • Request a written payout schedule from advertisers for September and October.
  • Check which legal entity pays the commission and through which bank or PSP.
  • Do not shift traffic to offshore brands without verifying the licensee, brand owner, payment recipient, and commission payer.
  • Assess the criminal risks of promotion under Scenario B, especially when working with Brazilian influencers and Telegram channels.
  • Reallocate budgets to other LatAm GEOs.
  • Keep an eye on the key dates: October 5, 6, and 9–14, plus court rulings and the bill in Congress.

The iGaming Ban: Outlook and Possible Scenarios

The future of Brazil's iGaming market remains uncertain: the ban may hold, be partially softened by a court, or revisited by Congress. Even a possible restoration of the regulated model will not bring the market back to its previous state overnight: participants will demand new guarantees, and the state will have to rebuild business trust from scratch. Let us examine the main scenarios and their implications.

Scenario A: The Ban Holds

Licensed brands shut down, domains get blocked, and players gradually migrate to offshore and illegal platforms. The state ramps up domain blocking and pressure on banks, PSPs, ad networks, and influencers.

In this case, the market does not vanish but changes shape: legal operators exit, and the share of opaque platforms grows.

Scenario B: Courts Suspend the Measure

Operators and industry associations are already preparing legal action. If a court finds the provisional measure disproportionate or in breach of business rights, certain provisions could be suspended.

This does not necessarily mean a full restoration of the previous market. A court may temporarily halt the ban while leaving advertising restrictions, casino rules, or certain types of betting in place.

Scenario C: Congress Softens the Ban

Instead of a full shutdown, a new model could emerge:

  • a ban on online casinos while keeping sports betting;
  • tougher advertising requirements;
  • additional restrictions for minors and debtors;
  • higher taxes;
  • limits on club sponsorship;
  • stricter responsible gambling rules.

Such an option would allow the authorities to preserve the political impact of the ban while partially restoring the tax base and control.

Scenario D: The Regulated Market Returns

Even if the current measure is overturned, operators' trust in Brazil will be badly damaged. Companies may demand stronger guarantees of stability, a transition period, and compensation for investments.

For the market, this will mean more expensive capital, a cautious approach to licenses, and shrinking long-term marketing budgets.

A regulated market can be shut down with a single document, but trust cannot be rebuilt that quickly. Brazil is becoming a stress test of the "license as a guarantee" model for the entire industry. For all stakeholders, the coming weeks will determine whether this ban becomes a turning point for regulation in Latin America or the start of an illegal market explosion. We will keep updating the article (subscribe to our Telegram channel!) around the key dates: October 5–6 and October 9–14, and as events unfold in Congress and the courts.