The Government announces the end of the Bet “with financial data pre 2025 regulations that does not add up“
Nine days before the first round of the presidential elections in Brazil, populism pushes the incumbent to announce the closure of sports betting businesses – or Bets – as sports betting is known in Brazil. Bets operators are mainly companies authorized by the Government to run digital platforms; closure orders also apply to online casinos.
President Lula signed a Provisional Measure on September 25, 2026. Bets prohibition was also endorsed by Dario Durigan (Minister of Finance) and Wellington César Lima e Silva (Minister of Justice and Public Security) and followed the announcement by Lula during an event in Sao Paulo. The PM includes a deadline for bettors to withdraw their balance at Bets businesses by October 5, one day after the elections.
Almost immediately, the guilds that group Bets businesses In Brazil, National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL), the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR) and all 85 Bets companies licensed to operate, signed a joint statement stating that, “the prohibition does not end sports betting in Brazil, but with the companies that protect the public that bet.”
That is to say, that some kind of electoral fever is making Lula take laughable positions, which are not in support of the people, who continue to feed the coffers of illegal gambling in Brazil, with illegal operators laughing insanely because the Government prohibition of regulated sports betting has an immediate effect boosting illegal betting operators in the country.
And that is exactly what the authorized Bets sector knows because prohibition of authorized operators would lead users to clandestine platforms, where there are no safe mechanisms for supervision, consumer protection and prevention of problem gambling as in the regulated market.
The “R$ 60 billion” that the Treasury evades reporting
BNLData, exemplary local betting media explains that the government’s announcement of the end of Bets has been done using “data that do not add up is based on data prior to the 2025 regulation”.
“Lula’s government announced this Friday (25), in São Paulo, the Provisional Measure that prohibits the exploitation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed odds bets throughout the country. Lula and ministers Dario Durigan (Finance), Alexandre Padilha (Health), Wellington César Lima e Silva (Justice and Public Security), Bruno Moretti (Planning), Miriam Belchior (Chief of Staff) and Sidônio Palmeira (Secom) took part in the event, where for about an hour, the speeches were based on unsourced figures, on investigations carried out before the regulation was approved and on questionable individual testimonies. No evidence was presented to show that the regulated market, implemented by the government itself 22 months ago, is the cause of the problems that the Government claims to combat.”
According to Magno José, BNL Data Director, Durigan said that “in the legalized market alone, there are more than 60 billion reais (US$11.565 billion) that went to bookmakers.” According to him, this money was “sterilized from the point of view of use by families.”
Official data from the Ministry of Finance itself shows the total opposite. Gross gaming revenue (GGR) from the regulated market was R$ 36.9 million in 2025. In the first half of 2026, it was R$ 20.07 million. This data was obtained by BNLData through the Access to Information Law, showing that the amount of the entire regulated period with available data amounts to R$ 56.97 million, clearly below the value cited by the minister.
The data quoted by the minister is close to another estimate circulating in the debate. According to the National Commission of Finance Secretaries (Comsefaz), Brazilian families lost approximately 62.5 million reais in online gambling and casinos in 2025. This survey is not shown as official statistic from Brazilian regulators, Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA).
The concept is also wrong. The government’s gross revenue is not money that “disappeared” from the economy. Some of that revenue has gone back to the government itself in the form of taxes and licensing fees. Some of it went to paying salaries, club sponsorships, and media contracts in Brazil. Treating the income of a legalized sector that pays taxes in full and is supervised by the Treasury itself, as “sterilized” money is a lazy rhetorical choice, it is not fact.
