Brazil’s licensed betting sector has been thrown into turmoil following a sweeping government measure that forces operators offline and leaves thousands of workers unemployed.
Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 25 September, bans the operation, offering, intermediation, and advertising of fixed-odds betting across the country.
The measure required the 85 companies that each paid R$30 million for a federal licence to take their sites offline on 6 October, triggering immediate workforce reductions across the sector.
Professionals working in VIP account management, CRM, marketing, and customer service are now finding themselves out of work and searching for roles in other industries.
Among those affected is Camila Santiago Scheineider, a former head of customer service who had helped build the Brazilian team at Cactus Gaming, part of the Ana Gaming group, as recently as July.
Cactus Gaming operates brands including 7K, and Scheineider managed VIP customer service operations for these brands before the company began cutting its most recently hired staff first, as their severance costs less.
After more than 20 years in the industry, Scheineider now faces a significant additional obstacle beyond unemployment, as employers in other sectors are showing prejudice toward workers who come from a betting background.
She was one of the very few industry professionals willing to speak on the record to NEXT.io, with the vast majority of workers and companies choosing to engage only on condition of anonymity.
The ripple effects of the mass shutdown reach beyond operators themselves, spreading into the recruitment and HR consultancy firms that had built their business around the iGaming sector.
With operators no longer actively hiring, recruitment consultancies focused on iGaming are losing business and experiencing considerable pressure of their own, according to a recruiter who works with betting companies.
The situation has been made considerably more complicated by reports that the illegal betting market has already begun approaching experienced professionals with employment offers, presenting a troubling alternative for workers desperate for income.
Brazil’s betting professionals now find themselves caught between a government crackdown, stigma in the mainstream labour market, and the unwanted attention of unlicensed operators looking to capitalise on the disruption.
