Brazil Deputy Files Bill To Ban Fixed-Odds Betting Within 180 Days
Federal Deputy Caroline de Toni has filed a bill in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies that would strip every fixed-odds sports betting operator of its licence within 180 days of passage, opening a new line of attack on a market that only became legal in January 2025.
180-Day Licence Termination Plan
Brazil's regulated betting sites sector has grown fast since launch, but Bill PL 5153/2026, presented on August 24, 2026 and recorded on the Chamber of Deputies' own proposal-tracking system, seeks to “extinguish the fixed-odds lottery betting modality” and prohibit its operation, offer, promotion and facilitation across Brazilian territory.
Federal licences issued by the Ministry of Finance's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets would be terminated within the 180-day window, and the bill also calls for blocking access to betting websites and cutting off financial flows tied to the sector.
Both Left And Right Now Turning On Betting
De Toni sits for the Liberal Party (PL), the right-wing populist party led by Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The PL is the largest bloc in Brazil's opposition, holding 91 of its 151 seats.
That the push comes from the right is notable: President Lula da Silva and his left-leaning Workers' Party (PT) have positioned themselves as no friends of the betting industry either, four months after signing the original Bets Law that created the licensed market.
Explaining the bill, de Toni said the betting market “has reached a sufficiently high economic scale to interfere with the consumption, savings, and debt decisions of Brazilian families.”
She cited an estimate from the Brazilian States' Fiscal Bulletin, which put the net outflow from Brazilian households to the betting sector at BR$65.5bn (£9.34bn), equivalent to roughly 0.68% of the country's estimated gross national disposable income.
Debt, Elections And What Comes Next
Betting has already become entangled with Brazil's household debt politics this year. In May 2025, four months after the market launched, Lula's government barred recipients of the Bolsa Familia welfare programme, a group of nearly 60 million people, from using licensed online casinos and betting platforms.
Lula has continued to link gambling to financial hardship, telling the Não Inviabilize podcast this month that “the tragedy of gambling is that you spend your whole life gambling to pay off the losses from the first game you played.”
Not every official agrees that the industry is driving the debt trend. Central Bank President Gabriel Galípolo told a trade show this week that rising household debt tracks increased credit-card usage, without mentioning fixed-odds betting. “It's not right to be happy with the news that credit has grown and then complain that debt has increased,” he said.
The bill lands ahead of Brazil's October 4, 2026, general election, in which voters will choose a president, state governors and members of Congress.
Flavio Bolsonaro has not confirmed whether a betting ban will be part of his campaign platform; his vice-presidential pick, Alfredo Gaspar, has said the PL is weighing whether to push for tighter restrictions or an outright ban.
For an industry that has drawn licensed operators including Entain, Flutter Entertainment, Superbet and Betano since its 2025 launch, the bill is another signal that political tolerance for Brazil's regulated market cannot be taken for granted, whichever side of the aisle raises it next.
More on how the story develops will follow on our gambling.com news page.
