Brazil has moved through three distinct legal phases in less than a decade. For most of the twentieth century, games of chance were a criminal misdemeanour outside a narrow set of state-run lotteries and horse-race betting. Between 2018 and 2025 Congress and the Ministry of Finance built a licensed market for fixed-odds sports betting and online games, which opened on 1 January 2025. On 25 September 2026 the federal government reversed course: Provisional Measure No. 1,394/2026 prohibits fixed-odds betting, including online casino-style games, throughout the national territory. A provisional measure (medida provisória) is a presidential act with the force of law that lapses unless Congress converts it into law within a fixed period. This guide explains the framework that applied until September 2026, the content of the prohibition, and the legal questions that remain open.
Key points
- The Criminal Misdemeanours Act (Decree-Law 3,688/1941) still makes unauthorised games of chance an offence, and it provides a fine for people found taking part.
- Law 13,756/2018 created fixed-odds betting as a federal lottery service; Law 14,790/2023 regulated it and extended it to online games. The licensed market operated from 1 January 2025 under ordinances of the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA/MF).
- Provisional Measure 1,394 of 25 September 2026 prohibits the operation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting. Sites had to go offline on 6 October 2026, and federal and state authorisations end on 25 October 2026.
- The measure does not penalise bettors, and it orders the return of account balances through the banking system.
- Several constitutional challenges are pending before the Federal Supreme Court (STF), and Congress has yet to vote on the measure.
Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.
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Historical development
Brazil’s modern gambling law starts with two wartime decree-laws. The Criminal Misdemeanours Act of 3 October 1941 (Lei das Contravenções Penais) made it a misdemeanour to establish or operate games of chance in a place accessible to the public (Article 50), to run an unauthorised lottery (Article 51) and to operate the jogo do bicho, an illegal numbers game (Article 58). A misdemeanour (contravenção penal) is a lesser category of criminal offence, punished more lightly than a crime. Decree-Law 6,259 of 10 February 1944, still listed in the SPA legislation index, then set the rules for federal and state lotteries operated through concessionaires.
Decree-Law 9,215 of 30 April 1946 prohibited “the practice or operation of games of chance throughout the national territory”. This brought casino gaming to an end. For the following seven decades, the lawful sector consisted mainly of lotteries authorised under federal law and betting on horse races at authorised racecourses, the exception recognised in Article 50(3) of the 1941 Act.
Two later turning points shaped the present. First, in September 2020 the Federal Supreme Court decided ADPFs 492 and 493 and ADI 4,986. It held that the federal lottery monopoly in Decree-Law 204/1967 was incompatible with the 1988 Constitution. As reported when the judgment was published, the court held that states may operate lotteries as a public service, while only the Union may legislate on which lottery types are lawful. Second, Congress created fixed-odds betting as a lottery category in 2018 and regulated it in 2023, as described below.
Legal framework
Federal competence and the 1941 baseline
Gambling law in Brazil is federal. The STF’s 2020 ruling confirmed that the Union holds legislative competence over lotteries, while states may operate the categories that federal law allows. The 1941 Act remains the default rule: any game of chance not authorised by specific legislation falls within Article 50. Article 50(3) defines games of chance as games in which winning or losing depends “exclusively or mainly on luck”, betting on horse races away from authorised racecourses, and betting on “any other sporting competition”. Article 50(2), in the wording given by Law 13,155/2015, provides a fine of R$2,000 to R$200,000 for anyone “found taking part in the game, even via the internet or any other means of communication”.
Fixed-odds betting: Laws 13,756/2018 and 14,790/2023
Article 29 of Law 13,756 of 12 December 2018 created “fixed-odds betting” as a lottery category and an exclusive public service of the Union. Fixed-odds betting (aposta de quota fixa) is a wager in which the potential return is known when the bet is placed. The law gave the Ministry of Finance two years, extendable for a further two, to regulate it. Regulation did not arrive within that period, and offshore operators continued to serve Brazilian customers.
Law 14,790 of 29 December 2023 completed the framework. Its main features were:
- Scope. It extended fixed-odds betting to “online games”, defined as electronic games whose outcome is determined by a random generator. This brought online casino-style games into the licensed market.
- Authorisation. Operators needed prior authorisation from the Ministry of Finance (Article 4). Authorisation could last up to five years (Article 5). The grant fee (outorga) was capped at R$30 million for up to three commercial brands (Article 12).
- Local establishment. Only companies incorporated and headquartered in Brazil could apply, and at least 20% of the capital had to be held by a Brazilian partner (Article 7).
- Excluded bettors. Minors, regulator staff, athletes and sports officials, and people diagnosed with gambling disorder were barred from betting, and bets placed in breach were void (Article 26).
- Advertising. Article 17 banned advertising that implied easy winnings or targeted minors.
- Payments. Prizes could be paid only by transfer to the bettor’s own account (Article 30).
Regulator and licensing model, 2024–2026
The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) within the Ministry of Finance was the regulator. During 2024 it issued a series of ordinances (portarias) that formed the detailed rulebook. The SPA’s legislation index lists, among others:
- Ordinance SPA/MF 615 of 16 April 2024, on payment transactions;
- Ordinance SPA/MF 722 of 2 May 2024, on betting systems and data provision;
- Ordinance SPA/MF 827 of 21 May 2024, on the authorisation procedure;
- Ordinance SPA/MF 1,143 of 11 July 2024, on anti-money laundering;
- Ordinance SPA/MF 1,207 of 29 July 2024, on technical requirements for online games and live studios;
- Ordinances SPA/MF 1,225, 1,231 and 1,233 of 31 July 2024, on supervision, responsible gambling and sanctions;
- Ordinance SPA/MF 1,475 of 16 September 2024, on the transition period; and
- Normative Instruction SPA/MF 11 of 4 November 2024, on the .bet.br domain.
From 1 January 2025 only authorised companies could operate nationally. Each authorisation covered up to three brands, and each brand ran a single website on the .bet.br domain, according to the SPA’s own summary. The SPA published authorisation records and distinguished companies authorised by the ministry from those operating under court orders. According to Agência Brasil, 85 companies held federal authorisations in September 2026, and together they had paid R$2.55 billion in grant fees.
State lotteries ran in parallel. Following the 2020 STF ruling, several states licensed fixed-odds betting for their own territory. The STF later limited how far this could reach. In ACO 3,696 a 2025 injunction, later ratified by the full court, required geolocation controls on bets accredited by the Rio de Janeiro state lottery. In ADI 7,640, decided in September 2025, the court struck down federal limits on multi-state lottery concessions, as summarised by Migalhas.
Online gambling and enforcement
Between January 2025 and September 2026, sports betting and online games such as slots, roulette and live-dealer tables were lawful only through authorised .bet.br sites. The payment rules were designed to stop regulated financial institutions processing transactions for unlicensed operators. Enforcement grew through 2025 and 2026. Ordinance SPA/MF 566 of 20 March 2025 and Ordinance SPA/MF 2,750 of 10 September 2026 regulated measures against irregular payment transactions. Complementary Law 224/2025 made financial institutions and payment providers jointly liable for tax if they kept processing payments for unauthorised operators after formal notice.
The September 2026 prohibition
Provisional Measure 1,394 took effect on its publication on 25 September 2026. Its main provisions are as follows:
- Prohibition (Article 1). It prohibits the operation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting, in physical or virtual form, including by foreign entities targeting people in Brazil.
- End of authorisations (Articles 2, 4 and 6). Federal and state authorisations are extinguished within 30 days, with no right to any refund of the grant fee, and pending applications lapse.
- Wind-down (Articles 7 to 9). Operators had to disable sites and apps within 10 days, accept no new deposits, and send individual bettor lists to financial institutions. Those institutions must then return balances to bettors’ accounts. A daily penalty of R$200,000 applies to operators that fail to comply.
- Payments (Articles 14 and 15). Financial and payment institutions may not process betting transactions except for refunds. The Central Bank is to create mechanisms to reject and reverse illegal betting payments.
- Advertising and platforms (Articles 16 to 22). All advertising, marketing and sponsorship is banned. Internet platforms and app stores owe a “duty of care” and face fines of up to 10% of group revenue or R$50 million.
- Blocking (Article 23). The Ministries of Finance and Justice may order sites blocked through the telecoms regulator ANATEL, and CGI.br is responsible for .br domains.
- Repeals (Article 29). The measure repeals Chapter V of Law 13,756/2018 and Articles 1 to 48 and 54 of Law 14,790/2023.
The government’s timetable, as reported by Agência Brasil, set 5 October 2026 at 23:59 as the deadline for voluntary withdrawals and 6 October as the date sites go offline. Banks were to return remaining balances between 9 and 14 October, with Caixa Econômica Federal handling residual cases. The government sent Congress a companion bill that would create criminal offences for operating betting platforms, with four to six years’ imprisonment, and for advertising, data use, payment facilitation and technology services, with two to four years. As of 5 October 2026 that bill had not been enacted. The government justified the ban on public-health grounds. It cited a 140% increase between 2018 and 2025 in public health-system consultations linked to problem gambling and an estimated social cost of R$38.8 billion a year (Agência Brasil).
The measure applies to online games as well as sports betting, because Law 14,790/2023 treated both as forms of fixed-odds betting. Commentators read it the same way (Projuris). Other lotteries with statutory authorisation, such as the federal and state draw lotteries, are not covered by the prohibition, according to Agência Brasil.
Position of players
Under the regime that applied from 2025 to 2026, betting with an authorised .bet.br operator was lawful for adults who were not in an excluded category. Provisional Measure 1,394 targets operators, intermediaries, advertisers, payment providers and platforms. It contains no penalty for bettors. Agência Brasil reported the government’s position that bettors face no criminal penalties. The measure instead protects bettors’ balances through mandatory refunds.
This needs one qualification. Article 50(2) of the 1941 Criminal Misdemeanours Act was not repealed. On its face it still provides a fine for anyone “found taking part” in an unauthorised game of chance, including online. The sources reviewed for this guide do not show how actively, if at all, this provision is enforced against individual online bettors, so readers should not assume either that it is a dead letter or that it is routinely applied. Winnings are taxed as described below.
Taxation
Under Law 14,790/2023, operators paid a tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR), meaning stakes received minus prizes paid. The rate was 12%. Complementary Law 224 of 26 December 2025 raised it to 13% in 2026, with 14% scheduled for 2027 and 15% for 2028, and it introduced joint tax liability for third parties that facilitate unauthorised operators. For bettors, Article 31 of Law 14,790/2023 imposed income tax of 15% on net prizes, applied only to the amount above the income-tax exemption threshold. With the core of Law 14,790 now repealed for future events, these rules matter mainly for the 2025–2026 period. The measure keeps operators’ tax and anti-money-laundering obligations in force for the period of their authorisation (Article 10).
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Ordinance SPA/MF 1,231/2024 set the responsible-gambling rules for licensed operators, including bettors’ rights and marketing limits. Later ordinances barred people from betting with funds from social programmes. Ordinance SPA/MF 2,217 of 30 September 2025 applied this to recipients of Bolsa Família and the Continuous Cash Benefit, and in 2026 the bar was extended to participants in the “Novo Desenrola Brasil” debt programme and student-loan refinancing schemes (SPA legislation index).
On 12 December 2025 the government launched a centralised self-exclusion platform, a system that lets a person block themselves from all authorised betting sites at once. According to Agência Brasil, users with a gov.br account choose an exclusion of 1 to 12 months or an indefinite one. Operators have 72 hours to apply the block, and the platform refers users to the public health system (SUS) for care. Ordinance SPA/MF 2,579 of 7 November 2025 and Normative Instruction SPA/MF 31/2025 regulate the scheme. With the licensed market closing, people affected by gambling harm can still seek support through the SUS. Our responsible gambling guide also lists general support resources.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Constitutional litigation. Several cases challenge Law 14,790/2023 or Provisional Measure 1,394. These include ADI 7,721 (National Confederation of Commerce), ADI 7,723 (Solidariedade party) and ADI 7,749 (Prosecutor-General), which attack the 2023 regulated regime. ADIs 8,024, 8,027 and 8,028 were brought by industry associations and a mayors’ association against the measure. All are assigned to Justice Luiz Fux. On 2 October 2026 he gave the Attorney General’s Office 72 hours to respond, according to BNLData. No court had suspended the measure when this guide was reviewed (Daniel Law).
- Other court actions. In early October 2026 Flamengo, followed by more than 20 other football clubs including Botafogo, São Paulo, Fluminense and Cruzeiro, asked to join the STF proceedings, arguing that they had lost sponsorship deals without any transition period (BNLData). On 6 October the Attorney General’s Office asked Justice Fux to keep the measure in force and to hear from the Prosecutor-General before ruling (Congresso em Foco). In the lower courts, the federal court in Brasília dismissed one operator’s writ on 8 October, holding that the measure could only be challenged through constitutional actions in the STF (BNLData). On the same day a federal judge in São Paulo allowed another licensed operator to keep trading until 25 October, but on 9 October the President of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF3) suspended that injunction at the Attorney General’s Office’s request, so the measure again applies to all operators (BNLData). A collective writ filed by the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) in Brasília, asking that its members’ authorisations should not lapse on 25 October, was still pending on 12 October (BNLData).
- Refunds to customers. By 10 October operators reported about R$159 million still owed to 22.5 million customers, down from about R$1.2 billion on 5 October. Banks were due to finish refunds by 14 October, with Caixa Econômica Federal handling any that could not be completed, and the Attorney General’s Office said it would sue eight operators that had not supplied balance data. Between 25 September and 9 October, 16,627 illegal sites were referred for blocking (BNLData, citing the federal government).
- Congress. A provisional measure is valid for 60 days, extendable once for another 60 days. Congress may approve it, amend it or let it lapse (Daniel Law). Whether the prohibition becomes permanent therefore depends on Congress and on the STF. A joint committee of both houses was appointed on 30 September 2026, and the deadline for amendments was extended to 13 October; 58 amendments had been filed by 12 October. The measure begins to block the congressional agenda on 9 November, and the initial deliberation period ends on 23 November 2026 (Congresso Nacional, MPV 1394/2026; Yogonet, 5 October 2026).
- Operators’ position. Industry groups argue that the measure lacks the urgency the Constitution requires for provisional measures and that ending authorisations without compensation is unlawful (Projuris). The government’s position is that the measure is needed to protect public health and household finances. Both positions are being argued before the STF.
- Casinos and bingo. Land-based casinos remain prohibited under the 1946 decree-law and the 1941 Act. No federal law legalising them had been enacted at the date of review.
Casino listings for players in Brazil
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that any operator is authorised in Brazil. Since Provisional Measure 1,394 of 25 September 2026, offering fixed-odds betting and online casino games to people in Brazil is prohibited, and federal authorisations end on 25 October 2026. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful. For the current position, readers should consult the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting.
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Sources and further reading
- Presidency of the Republic, Medida Provisória nº 1.394, de 25 de setembro de 2026 (2026).
- Presidency of the Republic, Lei nº 14.790, de 29 de dezembro de 2023 (2023, accessed 5 October 2026).
- Presidency of the Republic, Lei nº 13.756, de 12 de dezembro de 2018 (2018, accessed 5 October 2026).
- Presidency of the Republic, Decreto-Lei nº 3.688, de 3 de outubro de 1941 (Lei das Contravenções Penais) (1941, accessed 5 October 2026).
- COAD, Decreto-Lei nº 9.215, de 30 de abril de 1946 (accessed 5 October 2026).
- Ministry of Finance, Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, Apostas de Quota Fixa (accessed 5 October 2026).
- Ministry of Finance, Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, Legislação – Apostas de Quota Fixa (accessed 5 October 2026).
- Ministry of Finance, Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, Transparência ativa – processos de autorização (accessed 5 October 2026).
- Agência Brasil, MP das Bets: veja o que muda e saiba datas para devolução de valores (2026).
- Agência Brasil, Bets passam a ser proibidas no país e apostador receberá saldo (2026).
- Agência Brasil, Governo lança sistema que permite autoexclusão em sites de apostas (2025).
- Felsberg Advogados, Lei Complementar 224/2025: redução de incentivos fiscais, aumento da carga tributária e novas regras para bets (2026).
- Daniel Law, Medida Provisória proíbe apostas de quota fixa no Brasil: o que as empresas precisam saber (2026).
- Projuris, Proibição das bets (MP 1.394/2026): prazos, saldo e ações (2026).
- BNLData, Fux gives the Attorney General’s Office 72 hours to respond to the provisional measure that prohibits betting (2026).
- Migalhas, Bets no STF: veja o que está em debate nas ações que tramitam na Corte (2026).
- GMB Gamesbras, STF publica acórdão que extingue monopólio da União e permite a exploração de loterias pelos estados (2020).
- Congresso Nacional, Medida Provisória nº 1.394, de 2026: tramitação (accessed 12 October 2026).
- Yogonet, Brazil Congress extends deadline for amendments to Provisional Measure banning online gaming (5 October 2026).
- iGaming Brazil, Flamengo asks Supreme Court for urgent suspension of provisional measure restricting sports betting (5 October 2026).
- iGaming Brazil, Stake secures injunction and may operate in Brazil until October 25 (8 October 2026).
- BNLData, TRF3 overturns operator injunction and restores the effects of the betting MP (9 October 2026).
- BNLData, Federal court in the Federal District dismisses operator writ against MP 1,394 (9 October 2026).
- BNLData, More than 23 clubs ask the STF to allow betting sponsorship (10 October 2026).
- BNLData, Operators report R$159 million still to be refunded; AGU to sue eight companies (10 October 2026).
- BNLData, Report on ANJL’s collective writ in the federal court of the Federal District (October 2026).
- Congresso em Foco, AGU asks STF to uphold the betting ban (6 October 2026).
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