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Brazilian Federal Deputy Caroline de Toni has filed a bill that would revoke every fixed-odds betting licence in the country within 180 days and make running a betting platform after that a criminal offence.
Bill 5,153/2026 goes further than anything the government has applied so far. It would prohibit the operation, advertising and intermediation of fixed-odds betting in Brazil, and give licensed companies 180 days from publication of the law to close their operations.
What the bill would do
Federal authorities would be able to block betting domains and web pages, order apps removed from digital stores, take down advertising and halt financial transactions tied to the sector. The text extends those powers to digital wallets, virtual assets and infrastructure held abroad that serves Brazilian users.
Operators would get a further 90 days after the deadline to pay out pending prizes and return player balances. Anyone operating, managing or financing a platform after the transition period would face two to five years in prison plus fines.
De Toni sits for the Liberal Party (PL), whose presidential candidate is Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Her bill targets the market created by Law 14,790 of 2023, which opened to licensed operators on January 1, 2025 and brought in Entain, Flutter Entertainment, Superbet and Betano. Federal licences under that framework cost R$30m and run for five years.
The household debt argument
De Toni’s case rests on household finances. She cited figures from Comsefaz, the national committee of state finance secretaries, showing a net outflow of R$62.5bn (around €10.9bn at current rates) from family accounts to betting companies.
“The betting market has reached a sufficiently high economic scale to interfere with the consumption, savings, and debt decisions of Brazilian families,” Caroline de Toni stated.
“Between preserving the revenue of betting platforms and preserving the income of Brazilian families, the priority of the state must be with the families,” she wrote in the bill’s justification.
The Central Bank has pushed back on that reading. Its president, Gabriel Galípolo, has attributed the rise in household debt mainly to greater credit card use rather than to betting.
“It’s not right to be happy with the news that credit has grown and then complain that debt has increased,” Gabriel Galípolo said.
Both camps now run against betting
The PL bill lands on the same side of the argument as the governing Workers’ Party (PT). In April the PT filed Bill PL-1808/2026, which would ban fixed-odds betting outright and repeal the 2018 and 2023 laws. Congress now has prohibition bills from the government’s party and from the main opposition party.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the framework into law in late 2024 and has since turned on it.
“If no one shows me a social reason for these betting operations to continue, we have to put an end to them,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated.
Speaking on the Não Inviabilize podcast, Lula linked betting to a debt cycle.
“The tragedy of gambling is that you spend your whole life gambling to pay off the losses from the first game you played,” Lula commented.
His government has acted through restriction. Four months after the market opened it barred recipients of Bolsa Família, the cash transfer programme that reaches close to 60 million people, from betting on licensed sites. Finance Ministry data now puts the number of people blocked from licensed platforms at 6.2 million, including 1.2 million voluntary self-exclusions. The government is also weighing a ban on betting brands sponsoring federally funded cultural events.
Flávio Bolsonaro has not committed to a ban. His prospective running mate, Alfredo Gaspar, said the PL was considering tighter restrictions or full prohibition.
“Flávio Bolsonaro does not yet have a definitive position on a total ban, but he does believe the regulation should be revisited to ensure it truly protects Brazilian families,” Alfredo Gaspar remarked.
What happens before October
Brazil votes on October 4, 2026 for the presidency, vice-presidency, state governorships, the National Congress and state legislative assemblies. On betting policy the PT and the PL are now campaigning from the same side.
Neither ban bill has cleared committee, and the betting caucus in Congress, the bancada das bets, has blocked earlier attempts to unwind the framework. There is also a fiscal argument against repeal. The levy on gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose to 13% in March 2026 and is set to reach 15% by 2028, and the Finance Ministry has argued that prohibition would move players to unlicensed operators and remove that revenue.
Operators bought five-year federal licences 20 months ago. Both leading political camps are now competing on how far to restrict the market, and the measures that need no new legislation (blocking lists, self-exclusion and advertising rules) are the ones most likely to move before the vote.
Source: Chamber of Deputies
