Brazil regulates sports betting and online gaming after years of debate

Sports betting was legalized in 2018 by a provisional measure issued by then-president Michel Temer. Part of the revenue would reinforce the public security budget. The text approved by Congress began to provide for the type of fixed-odd betting in the country - those in which the bettor already knows how much he can receive if he gets the result right.

Soon after, Temer sanctioned the law that gave the Ministry of Finance a period of up to four years to regulate the activity. The deadline is over under Jair Bolsonaro's government. Betting continued without tax rules or supervision.

In 2023, the Lula government sent a bill with an urgent request to regulate the sector, under the justification of combating the illegal betting market. To obtain authorization, each company had to pay a grant of R$30 million, which gave the right to operate up to three brands. The Chamber included online games in the project.

In that same vote, the government guided a no vote from its bench and managed to overturn another amendment that would prohibit betting by debtors and beneficiaries of CadÚnico and BPC, and was criticized by experts because the prohibition would prevent the misuse of the purpose of social programs.

The Senate rejected online gaming. But the modality was returned to the text by the deputies, with support from the government base. The following year, the Lula government regulated electronic games such as tigrinho - a slot machine-type online casino game.

It was only in October 2025 that the government published a rule to prevent betting by Bolsa Família and BPC beneficiaries. In December, a complementary law increased the tax burden on gross gaming revenue for social security. And the Ministry of Finance released a self-exclusion tool from online betting sites, giving citizens the possibility of asking to be excluded from receiving betting advertising. In July 2026, the government issued an ordinance determining mandatory warnings and consumer protection rules.