Brazil bans online betting and casino — every licensed site goes dark on 6 October
On 25 September 2026 President Lula signed Medida Provisória 1.394, published the same day in the Diário Oficial da União and in force immediately. It prohibits the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting and online casino games in Brazil. New deposits stopped at once. Every licensed site must be offline on 6 October. Twenty months after Brazil opened as a regulated market, it is closing.
The timetable
- 25 September — MP 1.394 published; new deposits prohibited.
- 5 October, 23:59 — last moment for players to withdraw their balances.
- 6 October — all licensed betting and casino sites and apps go offline.
- 7–8 October — operators report remaining balances to banks.
- 9–14 October — banks return funds to customers; Caixa Econômica Federal handles whatever is left after that.
- Within 120 days — Congress must confirm or reject the measure, or it lapses.
What exactly is banned
The measure covers the exploitation, offering, intermediation and advertising of what Brazil calls bets. That is both fixed-odds sports betting and online casino games, in physical and virtual environments. Traditional lottery formats that hold their own legal authorisation are not affected.
This is wider than the bills that were already moving through Congress, which addressed fixed-odds betting, advertising and casino games separately. The provisional measure takes all of it at once, and it did not wait for a vote.
Eighty-five authorisations, and no compensation
Brazil issued 85 authorisations at roughly R$30 million each, around R$2.55 billion paid to the federal government. Because a single authorisation could carry more than one brand, close to 200 authorised websites were live under them.
The measure states that the termination of those authorisations stems from a reason of public interest and creates no right to compensation — not for lost profits, not for investments made, not for the expectation of continuity, and not a refund of the authorisation fee. That sentence is the one every operator and supplier with Brazilian exposure is now reading with a lawyer.
The criminal bill behind it
A separate bill sent alongside the measure would create five offences:
- Operating fixed-odds betting — 4 to 6 years imprisonment.
- Advertising or recruiting players — 2 to 4 years and a fine.
- Misusing personal data to target bettors — 2 to 4 years and a fine.
- Providing the financial rails — 2 to 4 years and a fine.
- Supplying betting applications — 2 to 4 years and a fine.
Penalties are raised where health data or betting histories are exploited, or where minors are targeted. The fourth and fifth items are the ones that change the calculation for payment providers and software suppliers, not only for operators.
The government’s case, and the number on the other side
The administration put the annual cost of gambling at R$38.8 billion, of which about R$30.6 billion — nearly 79% — is health-related, and cited a rise of roughly 140% in gambling-related consultations in the public health system between 2018 and 2025.
On the other side of the ledger: regulated operators paid about R$8.7 billion in taxes between January and July 2026 alone, and the unlicensed market was already estimated at around 41% of all betting activity while the licensed one was running. Roughly 1.2 million players had registered self-exclusions inside the licensed system — a tool that only exists there.
What this means if you supply the market
It is not settled. A provisional measure has the force of law from publication, but Congress has 120 days to confirm or reject it. At the time of writing no rapporteur had been named and no vote scheduled. Plan for the ban, but do not write Brazil off the map on the assumption that this is the final state.
Demand does not disappear on 6 October. With 41% of activity already outside the licensed channel before the ban, the realistic outcome is that the share moves rather than the volume. The difference is that after this measure, supplying the app or the payment rail into that channel carries a criminal exposure it did not carry before.
Content needs rerouting, not switching off. For suppliers the practical work in the next two weeks is unwinding Brazil-specific configuration — provider availability, payment methods, Portuguese-language lobbies, local bonus logic — and pointing that capacity at the rest of the region. Peru, Colombia, Mexico and the Argentine provinces did not change on 25 September.
Read your contracts against the compensation clause. The measure removes the operator’s claim against the state. It does not resolve what happens between operators and their suppliers, and revenue-share arrangements written for a market that no longer exists will need to be looked at line by line.
Reroute, don’t rebuild
The same integration that served Brazil serves the rest of the region. Provider availability, payment rails and certification confirmed per market before a launch date is agreed.
Based on Medida Provisória 1.394 of 25 September 2026, published in the Diário Oficial da União, and on reporting by Agência Brasil, Gaming Intelligence, SBC News and Rio Times. Health-cost figures and the size of the unlicensed market are government and third-party estimates, not audited totals. The accompanying criminal bill has not been voted on.
