Taxes on online gambling firms, known in Brazil as bets, have brought the federal government R$ 15.3 billion since January 2025, according to figures from the federal Revenue Service released on Friday (25). In practical terms, the money helped President Lula's administration meet its fiscal targets without squeezing the budget even harder. The number surfaced on the same day Lula, by provisional decree, banned online betting and virtual games nationwide, nine days before the first round of the presidential election.
Collection totaled R$ 8.94 billion in 2025, and another R$ 6.32 billion came in between January and August 2026, an average of roughly R$ 760 million a month. For scale, a survey by Comsefaz, the council of state finance secretaries, estimates that betting drained R$ 62.5 billion from Brazilian household budgets in 2025 alone. ANJL, the association that represents the industry, disputes the study and says the market's gross revenue last year was R$ 37 billion, based on Treasury figures.
Collection only became systematic in 2025. Until then, only residual amounts reached public coffers because most betting companies were headquartered abroad, as Revenue Service chief Robinson Barreirinhas told Congress in September 2024. Under the regulatory framework, companies had to incorporate under Brazilian law, and since early 2025 only firms authorized by the Finance Ministry may operate in the country.
How the betting tax worked
The rate charged this year was 13% on net gaming revenue, the so-called GGR: what is left of the bets after prizes are paid to players. It was scheduled to rise gradually, reaching 18% from 2028. Of the money collected, 36% went to sports, 28% to tourism and 13.6% to public security, with smaller shares for education, social security and health.
What happens to the money now
The ban dries up this revenue stream. According to InfoMoney, the end of online betting should remove about R$ 800 million a month from federal coffers, close to the average collected since 2025. The provisional decree, a temporary measure with the force of law, takes effect immediately, but Congress must approve it within 120 days for it to remain valid.
The revenue had been helping the government hit its fiscal targets, that is, the primary result, the balance between revenue and spending set in law; without it, spending blocks would have had to be larger. The central argument for the ban, though, is the household budget. "I will have the immense pleasure of putting an end to the bets," Lula said on Wednesday (23) as he announced his intention.
A report by BTG Pactual estimates that 25.2 million Brazilians placed bets in 2025, nearly one in every eight people. By Goldman Sachs' calculations, betting rose from 0.3% of monthly household consumption in 2018 to 4.4% in 2025: in a home that spends R$ 1,000 a month, R$ 44 went to betting platforms. Recent surveys cited by InfoMoney show about three quarters of Brazilians support a total ban.