Brazil’s Congress has returned from its winter recess period, and President Lula’s government is wasting no time pushing forward its ambitious overhaul of the country’s Bets framework.
Bill PL 2,258/2026, introduced on 7 May, sits high on the legislative agenda with its central aim of banning online casinos across the country.
Since Brazil’s regulated betting market launched, Lula has been vocal in his criticism, branding online gambling licences as predatory to Brazilian families and damaging to the nation’s poor.
The president has consistently argued that those receiving welfare assistance should be excluded from participating in online gambling entirely.
The Bets regulatory framework was widely considered unfinished at launch, with key provisions around compliance, safer gambling, consumer protection, and advertising left unresolved.
The 2025 regulatory period brought notable changes to the market’s structure, including a prohibition on sign-up offers and betting incentives for new customers.
Additional measures backed by the SPA include a five-second interval between each bet, a prohibition on autoplay betting, and the removal of sound effects designed to encourage wagering activity.
While Lula’s office looks to restrict the industry, Brazil’s Supreme Court is moving in a strikingly different direction, examining whether a decades-old ban on land-based casinos should be overturned.
Decree-Law No. 9,215/1946, introduced under then-President Eurico Gaspar Dutra, prohibited gambling across Brazil with a particular focus on casinos and established strict criminal sanctions against those operating gambling ventures.
In proceedings on 5 August, the Supreme Court focused its debate on whether the 1946 decree conflicts with principles of free enterprise, economic order, and the fundamental freedoms of Brazilian citizens.
Flávia Raphael Mallmann, a lawyer with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio Grande do Sul, argued that the criminalization of gambling is a moral judgement about protecting citizens, and not a criminal one.
Gustavo da Silva, a public defender from the Federal Public Defender’s Office, cited concerns about online gambling’s impact on vulnerable groups, aligning closely with the position held by Lula’s federal government.
The contrast between the Supreme Court’s direction and the legislative agenda underscores a broader tension within Brazil’s institutions over how to approach gambling regulation.
Reports indicate the government is also looking to bring fixed-odds sports betting companies under its Tax Reform programme, a sweeping fiscal overhaul expected to come into effect in 2027.
