President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to sign on Wednesday (23) the provisional measure that tightens Brazil's rules on electronic gambling. The draft, however, is narrower than the line the president has been repeating on the campaign trail: it bans online casino games — the category that includes hugely popular titles such as the "tigrinho" — and squeezes advertising, while leaving sports betting, the heart of the market, legal.
The gap between the announcement and the text became visible on Friday (18). At a rally in Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo, flanked by Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin, candidate Fernando Haddad and senators Marina Silva and Simone Tebet, Lula said: "I have decided I am going to put an end to the bets." According to Poder360, he said he would issue the measure after returning from the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Brasil de Fato reports the signing is set for the 23rd.
What the draft covers
As described by people following the drafting, the measure reaches online casino games and restricts advertising by betting houses. Sports sponsorship — the contract that puts a bookmaker's logo on a club's shirt — does not appear in the draft. In practice, the electronic roulette wheel goes dark; the bet on Sunday's match stays, with fewer ads around it.
The government expects pushback from the sectors funded by betting money, and is betting in turn that public opinion is on the other side.
The clubs have already pushed back
Before the text even existed, top-flight clubs — among them Flamengo, Palmeiras and Corinthians — issued a manifesto titled "The End of Brazilian Football", estimating losses of around R$ 1 billion in sponsorship revenue and warning of insolvency risk. Fans reacted largely against the manifesto on social media, questioning how the clubs became so dependent on gambling money.
That reaction measures the size of the government's problem: the sector it wants to rein in currently underwrites part of Brazilian football's payroll.
How it got here
The decision has been in preparation since the start of the month. On 1 September, Casa Civil minister Miriam Belchior — the Casa Civil is the president's chief of staff office — chaired a meeting with the ministries of Health, Justice and Public Security, and Sport, the Secretaria-Geral da Presidência and the government's communications office to weigh regulation against prohibition. Lula said then that he thought it was necessary to "take the most drastic decision", and noted how hard it is to reach the roughly 60,000 unlicensed betting sites.
The figures presented at that meeting explain the urgency. Health minister Alexandre Padilha said gambling-related appointments in the SUS, Brazil's public health service, jumped from about 600 a month to 100,000 a month, and that 55% of the cases involve women. Brazilian households lost R$ 62.5 billion to betting in 2025.
The measure lands 11 days before the first round of the elections. A provisional measure takes effect on signature but must be approved by Congress within 120 days to become law — and the Congress that will examine it is the one emerging from the 4 October ballot.
With information from Agência Brasil, Brasil de Fato and Poder360.
