The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is preparing a provisional measure to ban online games and restrict sports betting in Brazil. According to a report by UOL on Wednesday (16), the final text is still being drafted, but the vetoes on the sector will be broad. The presidential palace aims to publish the measure within days.
UOL reports that the government treats the text as something close to the extinction of online gaming in Brazil. The restrictions on sports betting still face a final adjustment, and one option under discussion is a limit on advertising. A provisional measure, or MP, is a presidential act with immediate force of law that must be approved by Congress within 120 days, or it loses effect.
Tougher rhetoric
The decision follows weeks of public criticism by the president of the "bets", as betting platforms are known in Brazil. In an interview with the broadcaster SBT, Lula said: "I called everyone who complains about the bets, I called society and I listened. Now we have mapped it all out and systematized it. Now I am going to make a decision." Earlier in the week, after meeting families harmed by gambling, he called betting a disease.
"We are making decisions and very soon we will announce the decision we will take on this, because it is a disease, it is not a game. It is the induction of innocents into an addiction," Lula said, in remarks cited by UOL.
Among the families received by Lula was Vânia de Souza Borges, a teacher from Uberlândia, in Minas Gerais state, according to the investigative outlet Agência Pública. Her son, Rafael, died in March 2024, at age 26, after eight months of gambling addiction. "I asked Lula to end the bets; I said that regulation alone is not enough," she said. In a live social media broadcast, the president described the meeting and said: "If it were up to me, I would shut the bets down." He added: "We remain passive before a society that is killing itself with debt." Vânia had reported her son's death in a letter to the Senate's betting inquiry, the CPI das Bets, whose final report was rejected without the indictment of 16 companies and individuals.
Pressure from clubs and the industry
Football clubs are already organizing against the measure. According to UOL, the clubs estimate losses of about R$ 1 billion in sponsorship under a ban, and Flamengo, Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo each hold contracts worth more than R$ 100 million a year with betting companies. Betting firms are weighing legal action and argue that a ban would expand illegal gambling through platforms registered abroad that pay no taxes in Brazil. The report also points to resistance from broadcasters that show football matches and profit from betting ads; Globo, Brazil's largest media group, owns a betting company, according to UOL.
The change also reaches public accounts. Through July, the government had collected about R$ 10 billion in taxes on online games, according to UOL. The measure is expected less than three weeks before the first round of the presidential election, in which Lula seeks reelection, and UOL assesses that the restriction aims to recover his popularity, especially among women. Once published, the measure goes to Congress, which has 120 days to approve it. As the final text is closed, clubs and betting companies are preparing their response.